On My Way to Find You
by FeelingGrey
Summary: Quinn Fabray seems to have her life back on track. Though everything changes when a disastrous event happens; but in the end is the change good or bad? All she knows is the last thing she remembers when she blacks out is flashbacks/memories/dreams of none other than Rachel Berry... Set on and after Season 3 episode 14 'On My Way'. Faberry
1. Prologue: Crossroads

**Quinn Fabray seems to have her life back on track. Though everything changes when a disastrous event happens; but in the end is the change good or bad? All she knows is the last thing she remembers when she blacks out is flashbacks/memories/dreams of none other than Rachel Berry.**

_In the spirit of my favorite holiday I've decided to post up a new story. If you were followers from my story 'I Feel Pretty When You're Around' you will have already been told of my plans for this story._

_I want to thank my Beta, __**achelefan24**__, I suggest you go check out her profile because she has written one fabulous story and is currently in the process of writing another one… She is one of my favorite authors on FF, you won't be wasting your time._

_Anyways, have a wonderful Christmas and I hope you enjoy the first two installments of this story!_

**I do not own any Glee.**

* * *

**Prologue: ****Crossroads**

_Jon M. Nelson wrote a Poem called 'Life's Journey'_

_As we journey through our lives, _  
_We all take separate paths. _  
_Sometimes they're filled with sorrow, _  
_Other times they're full of laughs. _

_There's no exact destination, _  
_We just follow where it goes. _  
_We travel until our journey ends, _  
_When that is, nobody knows. _

_We all make big decisions, _  
_As to different roads we'll take. _  
_We all learn from accomplishments, _  
_And mistakes that we will make. _

_What will lie ahead of us? _  
_No one can make that call. _  
_But we all need someone with us, _  
_To pick us up, after we fall. _

_In life our paths will cross, _  
_We won't always be alone. _  
_We've seen what's behind us, _  
_But our future remains unknown._

* * *

_Have you ever taken the time to look into your future? Have you ever stood and imagined looking out at a place that showed paths to different destinations? That these destinations hold your various futures? That you're able to choose a path to walk on? _

_Once you choose a path you may think you have chosen the right crossroad, that you have chosen the right path. Your __life gets back on track and you feel happy again after everything that you have been through. All the heartache, all the pain, all the sorrow you faced is no longer attached to you; everything has turned around. The path you have chosen has made you be a better person, a person that is nicer, that treats people the way they should be treated. You're the person you always wanted to be and you're not ashamed to be that person_. _You're the person who you were born to be. You don't care about the criticisms or the judgments anymore because you are finally__ being yourself_.

_That sounds like the perfect path to choose at a crossroad. You think that you made the right decision when you stepped up to that crossroad. But what happens if at that crossroad, you accidentally take one small step to the right or the left of that perfect path, you forget to hold onto a road map and your mind leads __you astray and your perfect path is gone? Is__ this new path, that you subconsciously chose, a path that could hold a secret? It holds a bit of your personality, a bit of who you __really__ want to be… an appendage that maybe you never thought you had__, that the so-called perfect crossroad would have made you hide._

_Yet, because you don't know that you wavered off the path you really wanted, you keep walking. You may start to realize that something doesn't feel right and maybe you realize that it actually wasn't the path you really wanted to take, but you're too afraid to walk back and pull out your map to get on your original intended path. So you keep on walking… you keep on searching… you keep your head held high… because that's what Fabray's do._

_But as you keep walking down this path, did you ever think that this path you chose, that __this path could be the path that is life threatening, a path that could change your life forever? Did you__ ever think that because you didn't go back, because you chose the easy way out, that it could be the most life threatening crossroad you have ever and will ever experience? _

_Although in the end, without you even knowing it, it actually does help turn your life around and may be the actual path you should have chosen to take at that crossroad in the first place... because the end result is better than anything you could have ever imagined, that this path is actually the right path for you, even if this unexpected life threatening experience is the first obstacle in this crossroad..._

* * *

This is Quinn Lucy Fabray, a Senior at William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio. A girl who has been faced with travesty after travesty. First, she makes one mistake that changes her life completely. She gets drunk and sleeps with her boyfriend's best friend and actually believes the boy when he says, "trust me" for contraception, which results in a pregnancy – pregnant at 16. Oh, she's also from a Christian home. Yeah, not the best of luck for Quinn Fabray.

The stunningly beautiful blonde gets kicked out of her house, dropped from her captaincy of McKinley's national winning cheerleading team, Cheerios, and has no choice but to live in her boyfriend, Finn Hudson's, house… The not-really-her-baby-daddy baby daddy. This doesn't last long for the ex-cheerleader, though, because rumors start to spread throughout McKinley and everyone finds out who the real father of the blonde's child is. So Finn dumps her and she's thrown out of yet another house.

She moves into the house of the soon-to-be father of her child, but hates it. She tries to look forward; she tries to look after her unborn child but struggles. All her so-called friends ditched her after her popularity dropped from the top to the bottom of the social pyramid. Her so-called Glee Club friends don't really take notice of her. They did try, though. They sung her a few songs. Some even say that they're there for her, but it feels more superficial then genuine... until she reaches out to a girl in Glee Club who is struggling herself... Mercedes Jones.

Mercedes steps up and becomes a real friend that Quinn so desperately needs, the black girl insisting she comes and lives with her. Quinn moves in with her new Glee friend and she soon goes into labor... But not until after her mother, who threw her out, shows up at one of her Glee Club competitions and insists that Quinn comes back home.

Quinn has her little baby girl Beth, and makes one of the bravest decisions anyone could make and gives her baby up, but she doesn't just give her baby up for adoption to some random person. No, she gives it up to Shelby Corcoran, the long lost mother of her frienemy Rachel Berry – the girl who stole her boyfriend – the girl who is labeled as one of the geekyist people in all of McKinley. The girl with multiple nicknames like RuPaul, Man-Hands and Treasure Trail to name a few. You may ask why she would do such a thing. No-one knows, really. Was it to get back at Rachel because Quinn knew Shelby didn't want anything to do with Rachel and she wanted to rub it in the girl's face that she wasn't even loved by her mother? Or was it because she really thought Shelby was perfect for Beth? Or was it for some other reason?

After Quinn gives up her child, she tries to get everything back to the way it was before. She moves back in with her mother, her father no longer being there because he couldn't keep it in his pants, the last straw that gave her mom the strength to kick him out. The blonde rejoins the Cheerios and starts dating the new boy in school, who had just become the quarterback, Sam Evans. Quinn makes some silly mistakes after Sue Sylvester gave her, Santana and Brittany an ultimatum between the Cheerios and Glee. In the end, with Finn's help, they choose Glee. Quinn, overcome with what Finn did for her, cheats on her boyfriend and ends up dating Finn Hudson again. Finn, replaced Sam as the quarterback, and scored the last try in the championship game that made the Titans win the championship. Oh, Finn had just previously broken up with Rachel Berry, Quinn's frienemy, too.

As Quinn is no longer a Cheerio, she's in search to reinstate her popularity. The blonde continues to strive to climb up the social pyramid, and Finn being Finn, wants that as well. So they campaign together for Prom King and Queen, but again, luck didn't find its way to Quinn Fabray and someone attempted to demolish the blonde's chances to get the crown. Lauren Zizes, a champion on the wrestling team, dug up some dirty secrets from Quinn's past. The pretty blonde wasn't always pretty or even blonde; she was an overweight brunette, with a big nose and glasses… oh, and her name isn't Quinn... it's Lucy Quinn Fabray... known by all her bullies as Lucy Caboosey.

Deep down love trumps popularity and Quinn sees this before Finn does. She tries everything she can to make Finn stay with her, even confronting Rachel Berry, but once Finn realizes what he wants, he breaks up with Quinn and tries to get Rachel back.

If you thought the girl had been through enough already, you were wrong. Just before the end of Junior year, she cuts her hair in search of a new girl, a new Quinn while in New York. During the summer break she even dates a 40 year old skateboarder.

Once Senior year starts, she comes back in search of her real identity, giving up on boys and working on caring about herself. She walks down the halls of McKinley with a new look, still wearing her short hair... but it's been dyed pink. She wears a black punk style outfit and sports a tattoo of Ryan Seacrest, tramp stamp style. She joins a group of rebel girls called "The Shanks" and chooses to smoke under the bleachers than attend her classes.

But things get even worst for the pink haired punk girl. Shelby Corcoran – aka Beth's (Quinn's daughter) adopted mother, and also birth mother of Rachel Berry – comes back to Lima. And she didn't just come back to visit, she starts teaching at William McKinley High School of all places. Of course Quinn wants to meet her daughter, so she confronts Shelby asking if she could see Beth, but Shelby refuses basically saying she wants Quinn to get her crap together before she lets her see Beth.

So what does Quinn do? She dyes her hair blonde. Changes her clothes. Puts on a pretty smile. But deep inside, she is still the lost girl who she doesn't know. Shelby lets Quinn finally meet Beth, and once the blonde locks eyes with her daughter, she feels like she finally has meaning in her life. She wants to be a mother.

The blonde does everything she can to get Beth back; she even tries calling Child Services stating that Shelby was an unfit mother. Meanwhile, in her need to be a mother, she even tries to throw herself onto Puck, but he obviously refuses, and the blonde soon finds out why – he's secretly dating Shelby. She tries to destroy Shelby's career after finding out this secret, but Rachel Berry confronts her, telling her that telling on Shelby is not only wrong, but will also hurt Shelby and Beth. She realizes all she wants is for Beth to be happy and safe, so she gives up on trying to get Beth back because she knows Shelby is the best mother for Beth.

Life starts to pick back up for Quinn. She starts to rebuild and make new friendships. One new friendship she makes, surprisingly, is with her frienemy, Rachel Berry. She applies to Yale. She even steps out and helps out friends in need, in a way she wished people would have done for her.

Luck finally finds Quinn and she gets into Yale. Quinn returns to her faith, strengthens her friendships, and regains her once-revered position on the Cheerios. Quinn chooses to bury her past when it comes to Rachel Berry dating her ex-boyfriend, Finn. As the couple recently got engaged, Quinn didn't think it was the right path for the brunette, and as a friend, she confronted the diva and told her as much. Rachel hears her out, but decides to only push her wedding plans sooner. As any good friend would do, Quinn accepts Rachel's wishes and supports the brunette's choice.

It looks like Quinn has gotten through everything. After all the humiliation and loneliness she faced for nearly two years, her life seems to be where she's always wanted it to be. It's like she finally chose the right crossroad in her life for once.

But no-one expects her life to get thrown an even worse curveball than she's ever faced. On the way to Rachel's wedding she quickly shot the brunette a text:

**Ran home to get my bridesmaid's dress. Be there soon.**

She starts driving, fixing up her makeup. She receives a text, ignoring it, but then another one comes through, so Quinn leans over and reads them. They were both from Rachel, the first one, reading:

**HURRY**

The second one reading:

**WHERE ARE YOU?**

She quickly texts out a reply:

**ON MY WAY**

As she clicks send, what she doesn't see is the truck to her left, speeding towards the cross sections in the road. He honks his horn, but it's too late. Her Red Beetle collides with the truck...

The collision shocks the blonde, for a microsecond adrenaline shoots through her body, but then her body can't take it and shuts down. She closes her eyes as she's about to pass out, expecting to find all black, but the last thing she remembers seeing in her mind was someone she didn't expect to see... Rachel Berry.

Then everything went black.

* * *

**The Crossroads**_, _

_by Joshua Mehigan_

This is the place it happened. It was here.

You might not know it was unless you knew.

All day the cars blow past and disappear.

This is the place it happened. It was here.

Look at the sparkling dust, the oily smear.

Look at the highway marker, still askew.

This is the place it happened. It was here.

You might not know it unless you knew.


	2. Chapter 1: Flashbacks

_Thank you to me Beta, __**achelefan24**__._

**I do not own any Glee.**

* * *

**Chapter 1: Flashbacks  
**

_You know how people say that just before you die your life flashes back to you? That the brain conjures up all kinds of strange things when it's deprived of oxygen? That all your joyous and most memorial moments will fill your mind and you will be at peace? _

_Does that really happen? Do people really experience that? A feeling of euphoria as they revisit happy moments in their lives? _

_More importantly, how would anyone know? _

_Maybe it only happens during near-death experiences because that is the only way people can actually tell if it does happen... because if it happens when we die, who would we be able to tell? How could you prove it? You can't... because you're dead. Or maybe you can actually die, experience those flashbacks, but then the doctors bring you back to life..._

_Stop thinking so hard, Fabray._

* * *

Quinn opens her eyes and looks around at her surroundings; it looks like she's in the school gym... but it looks different, somehow.

Wasn't she just in her car? The blonde doesn't understand what is happening. A bunch of Cheerios sitting around a blonde on the bleachers with a laptop on her lap catches her attention. She realizes that the blonde is… her.

_Okay, so I'm watching myself? What is going on? Is this some kind of a trick?_

She walks over to see what they are looking at and notices it's Rachel Berry's MySpace page.

She hears herself laughing with all the other Cheerios around as they are watching Rachel sing. She watches herself write comments with the other Cheerios on Rachel's MySpace page:

"**If I were your parents, I would sell you back."**

Another Cheerio writes:

"**I'm going to scratch out my eyes."**

And another writes:

"**Please get sterilized."**

Quinn realizes that what she is seeing is a flashback into her memory... but why is she having it and why this flashback? What does this mean? What is this? Things turn black before she can even begin to think why.

* * *

When it becomes light again, Quinn sees she's in the hallway. She looks around and spots her younger self walking with Santana up to Finn and Rachel. She moves closer so she can hear their conversation.

"Hi Finn." She sees herself turn and glare at Rachel "RuPaul." Then turns back at Finn as he says hey.

"What are you doing talking to her?" she hears herself ask Finn.

"Oh..."

Then she hears Rachel interrupt Finn. "Science project. We're partners."

She sees herself ignore Rachel. "Christ Crusaders tonight at 5:00. My house."

"Sounds great," she hears Finn reply.

Then she sees herself give Rachel one more glare and walk off down the hallway with Santana.

_I remember this…_

Again, she tries to understand why she's seeing these flashbacks but she gets taken to another one too quickly for her to process anything...

* * *

She sees herself standing between Coach Sylvester and Santana on one of the balcony's inside the school auditorium while Rachel, Finn, Mercedes, Kurt, Tina and Artie are on stage singing _Don't Stop Believin_'. She isn't sure why her subconscious brought her back to the first time she watched Glee perform but then she stares at herself and follows the death stare the younger Quinn is shooting down below and it's directed straight at Rachel.

Then everything went black.

* * *

She finds herself in the hallway again but this time she sees herself arguing with Finn. "We are in line to be the most popular kids in the school over the next couple years."

"Yeah. I know," Finn replies.

"Prom King and Queen. Homecoming court royalty. I am not giving up those shiny crowns just so you can _express_ yourself."

"Look, you're making too big of a deal out of this."

"Okay. Let's compromise... If you quit the club, I'll let you touch my breast." Older Quinn laughs at hearing the younger her say this.

"Under the shirt?"

"Over the bra!" Older Quinn laughs again, remembering how much of a prude she was and what ended up happening despite that.

"No, no... I can't." She sees herself scoff. "I want to do Glee. I'm really happy when I'm performing," Finn said.

"People think you're gay now, Finn. And you know what that makes me? Your big gay beard!"

"Look... I-I gotta go to class. Okay? Just relax... Everything's gonna work out."

Finn leaves and she thinks her subconscious is going to take her to another flashback but then she sees herself look at a person at a different locker... Rachel. "Eavesdrop much?" she sees herself say.

Rachel turns around and they both walk up to each other. "Time for some girl talk, man hands. You can dance with him... you can sing with him... but you will _never_ have him!"

"I understand why you'd be threatened. Finn and I have made a connection, but I'm an honorable person. I don't need to steal your man. I have plenty of suitors of my own. Every day Glee's status is going up, and yours is going down. Deal with it." She watches Rachel turn to leave and the brunette's face connects with an airborne blue slushy by Puck and another Jock.

She then sees the younger her laugh out loud.

Quinn takes a moment to think. The younger her tried to shut down Rachel with her ice cold bitchy words but Rachel stood their confidently... without a fear. Rachel stood up for herself.

Before she could think about it more, time flashes and she jumps into another flashback.

* * *

She shows up to one of her old Celibacy Club meetings.

"The Celibacy Club is now in session," she hears herself say. "Thanks to a school rule that says we have to let anyone join the club, we're welcoming a new member this week." She sees herself glare across to the other side of the room and sees Rachel sitting there. "Rachel What's-her-name."

"Where are all the boys?"

"Down the hall... First half hour we separate, then we come together to share our faith."

She sees them all get up and one of the Cheerios spins around. "God bless the perv that invented these," she hears herself say. "Remember the power motto, girls..."

All the Cheerios join Quinn, and even older Quinn joins in. "It's all about the teasing, and not about the pleasing." Then older Quinn laughs. She notices younger Quinn stare at Rachel, who is still sitting down on the table.

Before she could decipher what that stare means, she is taken to another flashback.

* * *

She shows back up still in Celibacy Club, but the guys have joined them.

"You know what? This is a Joke." Older Quinn hears Rachel say. "Did you know that most studies have demonstrated that celibacy doesn't work in high schools? Our hormones are driving us too crazy to abstain. The second we start telling ourselves that there's no room for compromise, we act out. The only way to deal with teen sexuality is to be prepared. That's what contraception is for."

"Don't you dare mention the 'C' word!" She hears her younger self lash out at Rachel. But then older Quinn thinks that maybe Rachel was actually unconsciously warning her about something... because not long after that she got knocked up.

"You want to know a dirty little secret that none of them want you to know? Girls want sex just as much as guys do."

She then sees Rachel storm out of the room and again everything goes black...

* * *

She finds herself in the hallway standing next to Santana while talking to Rachel again. "It sucks."

"It's completely unoriginal," Santana adds.

"Aren't you guys gonna get shunned for talking to me?" Older Quinn hears Rachel say.

"Sweetie, we're a team now."

Older Quinn shakes her head, _gosh I was such a bitch._

"But you gotta do something about Mr. Schue's dance routines."

Quinn sees herself continue to talk with Rachel and then her, Santana and Rachel start walking down the hallway, so older Quinn follows them. "He's the best show choir choreographer in the Midwest... he works with Vocal Adrenaline."

"You can't take Regionals without him. He was the understudy to the candelabra in Beauty and the Beast... on Broadway," Santana adds.

There was something very common with these flashbacks... but again things go black.

* * *

"I'm bored..." she's sees herself say in the choir room with the other Glee members. "All those in favor of hiring Dakota Stanley...?" younger Quinn asks raising her hand.

Older Quinn sees younger her lock eyes with Rachel. Then Rachel raises her hand.

* * *

Older Quinn opens her eyes and sees she is in the school hallway. She sees herself walking over to her locker, opening it and watching as Rachel comes up to her.

"Haven't seen you at Glee rehearsals."

"I'm not superwoman," she hears herself say angrily.

_Gosh, I was really mean_. Older Quinn reaches out her hand on her lower abdomen and feels a sharp pain. _What is that?_

She shook it off and looks back up at her younger self talking to a younger Rachel. "I know Glee is your whole life, but I have the Cheerios... I'm on honor roll... I have friends."

She sees herself close her old locker and turn to walk away, but Rachel's voice stops the younger blonde. "You don't have to be embarrassed... no one at Glee is gonna judge you."

Young Quinn turns back around and walks up to Rachel. Rachel, too, steps forward. "Look, I know everyone expects us to be enemies and be in competition... but I don't hate you."

Older Quinn feels a tightness in her chest. Rachel has always been so nice to her, even though she was such a bitch to the brunette.

"Why not?" she hears herself say. "I've been awful to you."

"That was before you knew what it felt like to be me... an outsider... More people are gonna start finding out about this and you're gonna need friends who can relate."

"How can you relate to what I'm going through?"

"You don't think people whisper about me in the lunchrooms or draw pornographic pictures of me on the bathroom walls?"

"That was me, actually." Older Quinn shakes her head. She was such a horrible person to Rachel.

"Look, I don't agree with the choice you're making but you're gonna need Glee... You have seven months of your youth left, you should enjoy it. And let's face it, in a couple of months that cheerleading uniform isn't gonna fit and we're gonna be all you have left... just... come back to practice. Boys versus girls – it's fun. And we could certainly use your voice right now. You're actually a good singer, Quinn. Occasionally sharp, but that's just because you lack my years of training."

Older Quinn stands still as her eyes fill with tears; Rachel was so nice to her. Nicer than she ever deserved. The brunette went out of her way to get her back even though she treated her badly.

"I would have tortured you if the roles were reversed, you know."

"I know." She sees Rachel walk off, but as the brunettes walks down the hallway, older Quinn sees her smile.

* * *

Again, she's in the hallway, but she sees herself walking out of the Spanish classroom with Finn running up behind her. Older Quinn walks with them as they continue to argue.

"You are so insensitive! Bringing up baby names to me when you know I don't want to keep it... I can't keep it."

"I know, but I don't get what you expect me to do about it."

"Not have an opinion?"

"Hey! This is happening to me, too!"

"No, it's not!"

She sees her younger self get to her old locker. She doesn't understand why her subconscious brought her to this flashback.

"You're not the one whose parents will burn her like a witch if they find out." She sees herself open her locker door.

"Sometimes I wish you were a little more like Rachel," Finn burst out.

"Really?" She could see herself holding back tears.

"Yeah. She cares about my feelings. She sticks up for me. She sticks up for both of us. You know that she gave that Jacob kid a pair of her underpants just to keep him from posting on his blog about you being pregnant."

She sees herself sigh. "You think she did that for me? Just to be a good teammate?"

"Yeah. That's what she told me."

"I know some guys cheat on their wives or pregnant girlfriends. Just don't do it with _her_."

She watches her younger self walk away. This flashback feels different, in a way, to the others. She stands there and watches herself walk down the hall. Why would Rachel do it just for Finn? Quinn had more to lose. She would be humiliated by her peers, but… Finn wouldn't be. He would just be the guy that got a girl pregnant. She would be the one that got pulled from popularity and laughed at, and called a slut...

Quinn then remembers the last memory she had and realizes that maybe Rachel was looking out for her... but why? She didn't deserve Rachel's kindness. Then everything went black.

* * *

Quinn reappears in the choir room. She sees herself between Puck and Brittany while Rachel and Finn stand in front of them singing _No Air_. She watches herself throwing Rachel glares and shakes her head remembering how much she hated Rachel. She was such a horrible person to Rachel.

Then it faded black.

* * *

She's in the auditorium this time, while Rachel and Finn sing _No Air_. Again, she watches herself throw daggers at Rachel. Then she sees herself storm forward and yell at Mr. Schue.

"Excuse me. What about us? You expect us to just sway back here like props?"

What the hell is going on? Why is she here? Why is she having these flashbacks?

Suddenly, she grabs her stomach in pain again... Then the flashback fades to another one.

* * *

Older Quinn sees her younger self in the hallway walking angrily up to Rachel, slamming the diva's locker shut. "Listen here, treasure trail. We're about to have a smack-down."

"I don't want to have a confrontation."

"Don't play stupid with me, stubbles... I'm having Finn's baby, and you need to back off. I'm asking you as nicely as I possibly can. Leave _him_ alone."

"You're right... I... I've helped you not because it's the right thing to do but because I had romantic ulterior motives. But just so we're clear, you're the one who's cheating." Okay, so maybe what Quinn thought in the flashback she had a while ago was wrong. She still didn't understand why she was seeing these flashbacks.

"Excuse me?" She heard herself say as she followed younger her and Rachel storm down the hall.

"I have on good authority that you're Sue Sylvester's mole and you can deny it all you want, but I know it's true."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Sue is not on your side, Quinn. She's not on anyone's side but her own." She stands at the bottom of the stairs while herself and Rachel walk up them. "Can you imagine what she's gonna do when she finds out about your situation?" Rachel asks. "She'll probably try to rip off your uniform with her bare hands... All right. Every time you whisper in her ear you empower her to do more damage to the Glee Club, and right now, Glee Club is all you have. And if I were you, I'd recognize who my true friends are... and I'd practice a little bit more because you obviously have a lot you need to express."

"Oh, you have no idea."

Okay she felt like Rachel just smashed her across the face... but as older Quinn thinks it over, while younger Quinn storms off, she realizes that Rachel was 100% right. Rachel even slipped in that she considers Quinn as a true friend... but why? Quinn didn't deserve it... Then again, she leaves to another flashback.

* * *

She's in the auditorium, standing amongst the empty chairs. She watches herself and the rest of the Glee members sing _Keep Holding On_. She stares at herself; she remembers how much sorrow she felt at that moment. She sees herself look into Rachel's eyes and sees Rachel reflecting sadness. Rachel was sad because she was sad. The brunette really cared for her, even... even though she hadn't treated the brunette with one little bit of respect.

Tears started to fill her eyes as she saw herself begin to cry.

There was something very in common with all these flashbacks her mind was forcing her to see...

* * *

She pops up in the choir room and notices herself sitting on one of the chairs. Everyone else is in groups chatting. She doesn't know why she is here, but she sees a look on her younger self... it isn't anger... more like a mix between sadness and fear. She then turns to see who she is looking at and her line of sight is aimed at Rachel… talking to Finn.

She remembers this moment. It was when Rachel and Kurt sang Defying Gravity. She isn't sure why she's returned to this flashback.

But as she hears Rachel sing, she remembers that this song was the first time she thought... no, she knew, that Rachel wasn't going to be a Lima loser. Rachel was meant to shine. Then everything goes black again.

* * *

Darkness fades and she ends up in the choir room again.

_This is getting really old. _

The Glee Club just started performing _Lean On Me_ to her younger self and Finn. She remembers this moment. She had just gotten kicked out of her house. She felt depressed and lonely, but the Glee Club members made her feel accepted and loved again...

She smiles as she watches them perform.

As the Glee members jump down from the steps, she watches Rachel smile and stare at someone. She follows the brunette's line of sight and notices she is staring at her...

Why didn't she notice that before?

* * *

Quinn sees herself walking next to Kurt down the hallway. "Not for me... Rachel."

Older Quinn wonders what flashback she came back to.

She hears Kurt chuckle. "Why would I wanna do that? I admit I like a challenge as much as the next guy, but Rachel somehow manages to dress like a grandmother and a toddler at the same time."

She now remembers what flashback this is; she wanted Kurt to give Rachel a makeover. She has no idea why she is back here.

"My point exactly," she hears herself say. "You're as concerned about the Glee Club succeeding as I am. And she's a distraction. Look at her. She's wearing a pantsuit."

Older Quinn follows her younger self's line of sight and notices Rachel in a blue pantsuit at her locker. She stops listening to Kurt and continues to stare at Rachel until everything fades away...

* * *

Quinn sees herself in the hallway at her locker looking through a folder. She notices Rachel coming up to her.

"Hey, I know it's not my place but have you had your doctor run the full genetic test panel on your unborn child? I only ask because my Cousin Leon and his wife got pregnant and then they found out that he was a carrier for Tay-Sachs."

"What's that?"

"It's a genetic disorder... Pretty terrible from what I understand. If one of the parents is a carrier there's a 50% chance that the child has it, or something like that. No, Leon's-Leon's baby was fine... it-it was still pretty scary though."

"My doctor never mentioned that."

"You know... I'm such an idiot. They would only run the test if one of the parents was Jewish." Older Quinn smirks. She now realizes what Rachel was doing to her. She was trying to make her come clean about Puck being the dad. Rachel was so sly. "Yeah. Only Jews carry the gene."

"Oh."

"Okay... well, see you in rehearsal."

She didn't feel anger towards Rachel... but for some reason, respect. Then, she went into another flashback.

* * *

Quinn is yet again in the choir room; she looks around and notices straight away what this memory is. She looks at the floor in the choir room and sees Finn bashing Puck. Mr. Schue jumps in and tells them to knock it off.

Finn gets pulled off by Matt and Mick. "Tell the _truth_!" Finn yelled at Puck.

Older Quinn begins to cry.

"Punk just walked in and sucker-punched me!" Puck yells back.

"Don't play dumb! You're too freakin' dumb to play dumb."

"Hey! Come on!" Will says.

She sees her younger self crying and walking over to Finn. "Who told you this, Finn?"

"Obviously, it was Rachel," Kurt says.

"What? I didn't do anything," Rachel lies.

"Yeah, it was Rachel, but I wanna hear it from you... I wanna hear it from both of you."

"Finn, just calm down," Mr. Schue says.

"No! They're both lying to me!" Finn yells.

Quinn grabs her stomach. Pain shooting through her again.

"Is it true?" Finn asks the younger her. "Just tell me. Is it true?"

She sees her younger self walk up to Finn crying... "Yes... Puck is the father."

"So all... all that stuff in the hot tub... You just made that up?"

"You were stupid enough to buy it," Puck says.

Finn pushes forward to get to Puck but Mr. Schue stops him. "Hey, hey, hey, hey."

"I am so sorry," younger Quinn cries.

"Screw this. I'm done with you! I'm done with... I'm done with all of you!" Finn then storms out of the room, kicking a chair on the way.

She sees her younger self crying and looks over at Rachel who is crying as well.

Older Quinn is expecting to be taken to another flashback but it doesn't go black. She sees herself run out of the door as the bell rings. She decides to follow after her younger self and sees herself go to sit down on a bench in the hallway. Older Quinn watches herself... she regrets what she did. She wishes she wasn't scared and actually told the truth. She was such a horrible person. Who lies about their baby's father?

She cries as she watches herself sit there with her hands on her stomach. Then she realizes the pain she's been experiencing and puts her hand on her stomach. Was it related? Older Quinn had a feeling it wasn't. Her abdomen pain was definitely from something else but she didn't know what.

Older Quinn notices Rachel walking up to her younger self. "I'm so sorry," she hears Rachel say. "I fully understand if you want to beat me up. If you can, just try and avoid my nose... Right." Rachel closes her eyes expecting Quinn to punch her.

Was she that bad of a person? Did someone really believe she was willing to punch them just because they told the truth… when she couldn't. Older Quinn just shakes her head and continued to cry.

"I'm not mad at you." Rachel opens her eyes and stares at the younger blonde. "All you did is what I wasn't _brave_ enough to do... tell the truth."

Rachel joins Quinn on the bench. "I... I was selfish when I told him. I wanted to break you two up so he would want to be with me."

"And now neither of us have him. I have hurt so many people. Can you go now? I just really want to be alone."

Rachel nods and gets up to leave. Older Quinn looks over to where Rachel is and sees Puck walking past her and up to her younger self. She's expecting to see them two talk, but the scenery fades black again. Quinn guesses she already saw what she was meant to in that flashback.

* * *

She steps into the choir room and sees herself scribbling in a notebook. All the girls were sitting on chairs. Older Quinn looks over and sees Rachel sitting on her chair staring down at her younger self with a disgusted look on her face. So the older blonde walks over to see what her younger self was drawing and realizes it's a picture of a girl with a big nose and big lips. An arrow was pointing to the face and Rachel Berry's name was there. 'LOSER' was written at the top of the page. Her older self takes a closer look at the drawing and realizes there is a whole stack of _love_ hearts drawn around the page. She scrunches up her face confused.

"Can I ask you guys something private?" Older Quinn hears Rachel say, she looks up from the drawing.

"Yes you should move to Israel," Santana says.

She watches Rachel stand up, grabs a stool, and sits in front of the Glee girls.

"It's about dating... not that I'm dating anyone. We all know that Finn and I are no longer an item and for the sake of the team, I broke up with Jesse."

Oh right... Older Quinn remembers this flashback. _Rachel, you're such a liar._ She smirks at how Rachel wasn't fooling any of the girls. Quinn then sees Mr. Schue walk in.

"But let's just say I was dating someone. Let's just say hypothetically, we went to a Wiggles concert last Friday night, and then because me dads weren't home, we went up to my room and started making out. It was erotic and romantic... and then he said... we should do it."

Quinn scrunches up her face grossed out. Then she looks at herself and a younger version of the face she was making is present in her younger self.

"What if then he got really crabby and left and didn't even take home the Care Bear I won him playing Skee Ball?"

She hears her younger self talk. "Would you please stop? You're grossing out my baby."

"I just want to be ready. I know I'm getting older and these things are gonna happen someday..." Rachel said. But before she went on, everything faded out. Older Quinn leaves for another flashback.

* * *

She is standing outside an auditorium but not McKinley's auditorium. Then she notices herself, Rachel and Mercedes sneaking into the auditorium and suddenly realizes where she is... Carmel High's auditorium spying on Vocal Adrenaline.

"You think they can see us?" Mercedes asks.

"If they catch us, are we gonna have to go to jail?" younger Quinn asks.

"Stealing their ideas is not a crime," Rachel says. She sees them grab a seat. "Your shoes are making noise."

Older Quinn watches them watch Vocal Adrenaline. "They look amazing," Rachel says.

Quinn isn't sure why she is here. Actually, she doesn't know what any of her flashbacks are about. Most of them reflect her bitchiness... was that what she is meant to see?

"God, she's good," she hears Rachel say, taking her from her thoughts.

Was this maybe about Beth? Shelby is here and Rachel is, too. She knows what is about to happen between the two.

"Do I have to demonstrate? _Funny Girl_... E-flat," she heard Shelby say.

"Exactly what I would have done... Barbra... I could do it in my sleep," Rachel says.

Shelby starts singing and older Quinn watches Rachel. She knows what is about to happen but she had never watched Rachel's expression when she found out that Shelby Corcoran was her mom.

Rachel suddenly stands up. "Where are you going?" Mercedes whispers.

"Get back here," she hears her younger self say. She watches herself watch Rachel walk away from them... there's something in her eyes that she doesn't recognize.

The older blonde was expecting to watch Rachel speak to Shelby but before Rachel walked all the way down to the stage, the scenery again faded.

* * *

Quinn notices the younger her and the rest of the Glee girls plus Kurt in the auditorium dressed up in all their GaGa outfits. Rachel comes walking in.

"Looking good, Rachel," Mercedes says.

"Thanks, my mom made it," Rachel says spinning around and then lowering her sunglasses.

Older Quinn stares at Rachel. Her eyes went wide and she nodded her head in approval... Rachel looked good. She then turned and looked at herself and she saw herself staring at Rachel. Older Quinn scrunched up her face...

_Was I just checking out Rachel?_

Then everything went black.

* * *

Quinn opens up her eyes and focuses on her surroundings. She is standing just off a stage. She looks over and sees herself and the rest of the Glee Club performing. It was their Regionals' performance.

Older Quinn watches herself as the Club performs _Any Way You Want It/Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'_. It was like everything around her started to go into slow motion; she knew that she is meant to see something here. She concentrates, watching herself, and as she comes and joins the Glee girls in their dancing, she notices her eyes slip from the audience and move to Rachel's… back. Confused as to why she's still watching herself. She then notices her younger self bite on her lower lip and travel her eyes lower on Rachel's back... to her...

_Holy crap! I just checked out Rachel's ass?_.

Quinn stares out into nothingness. What were all these flashbacks about? There is something in common with each one... more like they all involve _one_ person. But _why_? Why do they only involve her and...

Before she thinks the name, she clenches her stomach in pain? What is going on? She knows she would be almost in labor with Beth... but this definitely wasn't related to Beth. She grabs her abdomen in pain...

She looks up at the person who has been at the center of all her flashbacks. The brunette is beaming as she sings and dances her heart out. But why do these flashbacks all involve...

But it all fades to black before she says the brunette's name...

* * *

**Present Day:**

After the car crash, the emergency services came as fast as they could. The truck driver was the one that called 911. He was a bit shaken up, but he was okay. Once the firemen broke open the blonde's car, they pulled her out and the paramedics took her straight to the hospital. She was rushed in with internal bleeding in her abdomen, dislocated left shoulder, broken right hand, and brain and spinal cord injuries.

Judy, Quinn's mother was called while the blonde was laying in the back of the ambulance, but the older blonde didn't get to see Quinn off. Her injuries were so critical she had to be rushed off to surgery.

Five minutes after the accident happened, Rachel started ringing the blonde but no one picked up. She continued to call until someone would answer and on the fifth try she heard a voice that she didn't recognize. It was a police women and she informed the brunette of what happened to Quinn. Rachel immediately broke down and handed the phone to one of her fathers. The Glee Club went straight to the hospital after they found out the horrible news.

Once everyone was at the hospital, no-one left until they were informed that Quinn was out of surgery and was in the ICU. The doctors told them that things still weren't stable and that only time will tell how she is. Judy rushed straight in to sit at her daughter's bedside. Everyone but Rachel left. She couldn't bring herself to leave. The brunette was there in the waiting room for a full day after Quinn got out of surgery, refusing to leave, but her fathers insisted that she needed to go home, so she left.

* * *

Quinn is laying in her hospital bed in the ICU; she's been there for three days now. No change on her progress. She is in a coma. Judy is sitting on a chair next to Quinn; she is reading a magazine out loud. She stops everything when she hears a whisper. She looks up and sees her daughter's lips open.

"**Rachel..."** is whispered out.


	3. Chapter 2: Memories, Part 1

_Big thank you to my wonderful Beta/Glee drinking partner/Friend, **achelefan24**.  
_

_Thank you to everyone who has placed this story on either alerts, favorites or both. And I can't forget all those reviews I received for my previous 2 chapters I uploaded.  
_

_Hope you all enjoy the next installment.  
_

* * *

**Chapter 2: Memories, Part 1:**

"I've never tried to block out the memories of the past, even though some are painful. I don't understand people who hide from their past. Everything you live through helps to make you the person you are now." - Sophia Loren.

_Haruki Murakami once said, "Memories are what warm you up from the inside. But they're also what tear you apart." Do you believe that? _

_Memories can be both good and bad, but it seems like whether they're good or bad, it's the meaningful memories that we hold onto the most. They're the ones that we don't want to let slip out of our minds because whether they are good or bad, they pull on your heartstrings to hold onto. It's like meeting your first love and breaking up... your pain and suffering may slowly go away but all of the memories you hold will never leave... you always have a small place in your heart to be filled by those memories. _

_Holding onto memories can have a good or bad effect on you. You can look back and realize the things that you missed, or you can look back and see the things you wished you changed. Memories can even influence the choices you choose to make in the future._

* * *

**Present Day:**

"**Rachel..."**

Quinn whispered out, while laying in her hospital bed.

Judy immediately stood up and ran over to her daughter. "Quinnie? Quinnie?"

But there was no response... until the monitors began to beep. A team of doctors and nurses quickly came over to her. One of the nurses asking Judy to leave the room immediately. Judy started crying thinking the worst – something was wrong with her daughter. The older blonde stood outside the room while the team of doctors and nurses assessed and worked on her daughter.

Then they unlocked the hospital bed's breaks and started moving Quinn outside the room. "What's going on?" Judy cried.

A resident doctor came up to the distorted mother, "Mrs. Fabray, it looks like Quinn hasn't recovered from her abdominal wound. It may be a result of her spleen not functioning properly but we have to open her up and assess the situation straight away; she needs to go back in for surgery."

Judy nodded away. As the doctor was about to leave she remembered what happened just before the monitors started beeping. "Excuse me, Doctor?"

The young male turned around. "My daughter... before the monitors went off, she said someone's name."

The doctor stood there stunned. "What does that mean?" Judy asked.

"I'm not sure... but we will assess the situation once we get her out of surgery and she's stable."

Judy nodded and the doctor turned and walked off, obviously heading to the OR. Judy walked into Quinn's room and opened up the drawer where the younger girl's possessions were. The police officers on the scene of the accident brought all of Quinn's possessions to the hospital and handed them over to Judy, making everything all too real. She opened up the zip lock bag and pulled out the girl's cell phone.

The older blonde turned on the phone and searched for a name, she then clicked a button to call.

It only rang for two rings before the person answered. "Quinn? Quinn, is that you? Are you okay?" Came a worried voice from the other end.

"Is this Rachel?" Judy asked.

"Yes... who is this?" Rachel replied.

"This is Judy, Quinn's mother. Could you please come down to the hospital?"

"Is Quinn okay?"

"I'm not sure... but could you please come down?"

"Yes... absolutely. I'll leave right now!"

"Oh, Rachel?"

"Yes, Mrs. Fabray?"

"Tell the nurse you're Quinn's half-sister. They won't let you into the ICU if you aren't a family member."

"All right. Thank you, Mrs. Fabray. See you soon."

Both ladies disconnected the phone call.

* * *

**Quinn's Dream State:**

_She opens her eyes and looks around to find that she's in the choir room, but everyone looks older than she remembers. She feels older. Her hand subconsciously goes to her abdomen. _

Better.

_The pain has subsided… it may even have gone away._

_The older blonde shrugs and then again looks around, trying to figure out what memory her mind has brought her back to._

_Quinn looks over at her younger self and she sees herself doing the same thing, observing the room, but not looking at anything in particular. The older blonde scrunches up her face, confused. _

'What is this supposed to mean?'

_Older Quinn then tries to take everyone else's appearance in and notices Rachel. Pain shoots through her heart and she grabs her chest._

'I remember now_._'

_It's Britney Week during their junior year and Rachel is sporting a very different appearance to her usual style of argyle and sweaters._

'Rachel looks… hot_._'

_Quinn shakes her head realizing what she just thought. The older blonde then looks back up at her younger self. Rachel's chatting away, yet she sees herself not staring down at Rachel. _

'Why not?'

_Then the memory fades into a new one. _

* * *

_Quinn takes in her surroundings and sees herself with Finn at his locker. She's dressed in her Cheerio uniform._

_"Congrats Finn. You're back on the football team. I'm head cheerleader again. Some kind of symmetry, don't you think?" Older Quinn hears her younger self say. "With all the nastiness between you and I behind us, I think we should be together. We'd be a shoe-in for Prom King and Queen. So what do you say? You and me, 8 o'clock, Breadstix?"_

_"Look I'd be lying if I said I didn't have feelings for you, I always will..." Finn shuts his locker. "But I'm not gonna get back together with you... there's someone else and you know who that is. I'm asking that you respect that. I'm sorry."_

_Younger Quinn watches Finn walk off; older Quinn watches herself turn and walk in the opposite direction, walking up to Rachel who's waiting at the corner of the cross section of the hallways. _

_"I said what you wanted me to. He shot me down... so congrats. Looks like he really loves you," younger Quinn tells Rachel._

_She watches herself walk away from Rachel and notices a hurt look in her eyes... Was it because Finn doesn't want her or was it something else?_

_Then things go black._

* * *

_She sees her younger self in the bathroom putting on eyeliner at a sink, now. The door swings open and in walks Rachel Berry._

_"Hi Quinn... can we talk?"_

_Quinn then grabs her blush and starts applying it to her face. "What do you want to talk about?"_

_"About Sam... I-I heard you backed out of doing a duet with him." Rachel pauses and then speaks again, "Look, I understand that your reputation is important to you, but wouldn't you wanna do whatever it takes to be on the proverbial pyramid in every aspect of your life?"_

_"Singing with Sam won't change that." Older Quinn sees herself place her makeup in her bag and picks said bag up._

_"But winning the competition will." Quinn puts her bag over her shoulder and then starts to leave. "And partnering with Sam is really your only shot at it."_

_Older Quinn sees herself stop just before opening the bathroom door to exit and turns around. "What's your angle?"_

_"Angle?" Rachel asked dumbly._

_"What's your angle? Me winning means you losing and you'll do whatever it takes to make sure that doesn't happen. So what is in it for you?"_

_"Look, I agree. You're probably not gonna beat Finn and I... but I just thought that... as... as the team captain it would good for the team to have some healthy competition for second place."_

_Older Quinn scrunches up her face confused as to why she was having the memory._

'The only things these memories have in common are… Rachel. She's been in all of them.'

_But why?_

* * *

**Present Day:**

Rachel found her way to the ICU stating to one of the nurses that she was Quinn's sister. She was born to be an actress, after all. The nurse escorted her to Quinn's single room. The brunette looked into the room and found Mrs. Fabray sitting in a chair flicking through a magazine. She wasn't really looking at it; she had a lost look on her face. Rachel looked around but there was no one else in the room. Where was the bed? Where was Quinn?

Fear consumed Rachel. She wiped away a tear that escaped her eye and lightly knocked on the door, interrupting Mrs. Fabray. The older blonde looked up to the door as Rachel entered. "Mrs. Fabray, I'm Rachel Berry," the brunette whispered lightly walking over to Judy as the older blonde stood up and shook the brunette's hands.

A tiny smile reached the older blonde's lips. "Rachel... It's lovely to officially meet you. However, I wish it was under better circumstances."

The brunette forced a small smile and nodded. As they let each other's hands go, Rachel grabbed a cup coffee off the tray she was holding in her other hand, holding it up and handing it over to Judy. "I'm sorry I didn't ask you if you wanted me to bring you anything but I thought you might like some coffee."

"Thank you, Sweetie. I would actually love a coffee," the older blonde said as she took the coffee out of the brunette's grasp.

"So... ummm where's Quinn? Is she okay?" Rachel whispered.

"Why don't you take a seat, Sweetie," Judy said pointing to the chair that was located right next to the one she was just sitting in. Rachel nodded and followed the older blonde's hand and sat down where Judy was still pointing. Judy then walked over and sat down in her original seat.

"Quinn's in surgery..." Judy trailed off, tears starting to fill her eyes. Rachel just sat there shocked. She didn't know what to do or say so she just held onto her coffee cup with both her hands and waited for Mrs. Fabray to continue. "...The doctors said that she still had internal injuries from the crash that didn't heal..."

"Is she going to be okay?" Rachel asked as tears filled her eyes.

"I'm not sure yet... The doctors haven't come in to tell me how the surgery is going..."

"I'm sure Quinn will be fine. She's strong. I know she will be able to get through this," Rachel said trying to sound positive for the older women.

Judy nodded and wiped away her tears. She then looked up at Rachel. "There's a reason why I called you..." Rachel nodded. She had to admit she was shocked when she heard Mrs. Fabray's voice on the other line. She had no idea why the older blonde would have called her. Did she know that Rachel was the one that texted her daughter and was she going to yell at her and blame her? Rachel felt like she deserved it.

"Just before Quinn's monitors started to go off and before the doctors and nurses came in… she called out your name, dear…" Judy trailed off.

"She did?" Rachel asked surprisingly.

Judy nodded, "I'm not sure why she would. She's spoken to me about you before stating you too are close friends, and that you have helped her through her hard times at the start of this school year... but I still don't understand why she would say your name."

Rachel eyes started to fill with tears, she knew why Quinn would be saying her name. "It's all my fault..." Rachel trailed off as she burst into tears. Judy sat their wide eyed, shocked at seeing the little brunette burst out crying with more force than she thought possible from such a small frame. "...It was my wedding she was going to... I was rushing her… She was texting me before she had the crash... It's all my fault."

Judy sat there not knowing what to do. The police informed her that they thought the cause of the crash was from Quinn texting while driving, so once the police handed over the younger blonde's possessions, Judy looked at her daughter's phone and saw the text she had between Rachel. She knew Quinn was texting the brunette before the accident.

"It's not your fault, Rachel..." Judy softly said. The older blonde already had time to process this. Once she knew that Quinn texted Rachel and then had the accident, she was angry at the little brunette, but then she realized that it was Quinn's fault. Not Rachel's. Quinn chose to look at her phone while driving. It was her choice.

Rachel looked up at the older blonde and shook her head, "No... Mrs. Fabray, this is all my fault..."

"Rachel, it was Quinn's choice to text you while driving. She didn't have to do it, but she did. It could have been anyone she was texting back. Don't blame yourself, Sweetie."

"Well Quinn obviously does... That's why she said my name, right? She's already blaming me while unconscious," Rachel said as she looked down and started to cry again.

Judy sat there and took in what Rachel just said. The older blonde never thought of that... But there was something about the way Quinn said it that made her think that it wouldn't be out of anger. So Judy spoke up. "I don't think she is, Sweetie. The way Quinn said your name... it didn't sound like she was angry. It sounded like a soft whisper... like she was asking for you... like she wants you here."

"Really?" Rachel said looking up.

Judy nodded, "I don't know what's going on in her head right now... but I know my daughter and I know she called out your name because she wants you here."

* * *

**Quinn's Dream State:**

_She now finds herself watching the other Glee girls perform their mash-up of Start Me Up/Livin' on a Prayer._

_Quinn smiles at this memory. She enjoyed doing the mash-up._

_Older Quinn watches herself dance and sing. The girls are all dressed up in leather outfits. Her eyesight shifts to the other girls and soon gravitate to watching – __observing__ – Rachel... the brunette is crawling on the ground like an animal... _

_Her eyes go wide and she sucks on her lower lip... _

'Crap... That's hot!'

_Before she realizes what she said, everything goes black. _

* * *

_Quinn pops up in the auditorium and she sees her younger self sitting next to Kurt. She then looks up on the stage and notices Rachel and Miss Holiday dressed in a skimpy red outfit singing a mash-up of 'Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag.'_

_Older Quinn drags her eyes away from Rachel and Miss Holiday and looks down at her younger self. She smiles at seeing herself so carefree and happy. Quinn then lifts her eyes back up to the stage and watches Rachel perform the rest of the song with the substitute teacher... but she can't take her eyes off of Rachel... _

_Once the song is over and the Glee kids start to clap, the memory slowly fades away into a new one._

* * *

_Quinn opens her eyes and sees herself sitting in between Tina and Brittany on stools in the choir room. Rachel's standing up near the piano talking to them._

_"Ladies, the Kurt-Karofsky bullying situation is getting way out of control. Kurt's miserable. He's loosing weight, and not in a good way, and he's barely even fighting me for solos anymore."_

_"We've all been teased but something that Karofsky is doing is so much worse," Tina says._

_"We're all lucky enough to have boyfriends on the football team and I say we band together and demand that they confront Karofsky," Rachel adds._

_"Okay, first of all I'm not dating Sam, and second of all, I think you personally just set the feminist movement back 50 years," Older Quinn hears herself say to Rachel._

_"Guys like Karofsky only respond to muscle."_

_"So, we're going to fight violence with violence?" She says, obviously pissed off._

_"No! Look, I'm not saying... Th-That they should hit him, what I'm saying is that we need to defend Kurt and there's strength in numbers," Rachel voices._

_Why are all these memories showing her talking to Rachel, or even just looking at Rachel? Does this mean something? Before she can think, everything fades to black again._

* * *

_"Mr. Schuester, I have an announcement. I have selected the perfect moving ballad for Finn and I to sing and to launch our performance at Sectionals," Rachel says enthusiastically as Mr. Schue walks into the choir room, __late as usual._

_Quinn sees herself roll her eyes at Rachel's statement and laughs at herself. Mr. Schue starts going off on a rampage about what he wants for Sectionals and because Rachel finds out she's not getting a solo, and that Quinn and Sam will be singing the ballad, the brunette lashes out._

_"Ken and Barbie... A-Are you trying to throw this?"_

_"You used to be just sort of unlikeable, but now I pretty much feel like punching you every time you open your mouth." Older Quinn laughs at her backlash at Rachel. Then she shakes her head as the memory starts to fade away._

* * *

_Quinn opens her eyes and finds she's in the auditorium. Tina and Mercedes are singing 'Dog Days Are Over' while the rest of the Glee members are jumping and dancing around. The song is just about to end and she finds herself up on one of the steps dancing next to Rachel. She sees her younger self look over at Rachel, as they were about to jump down to join everyone else they both pulled out their hand to grab the others. Older Quinn watches her younger self latch her left hand around Rachel's right hand. _

_Older Quinn felt an electric bolt shoot up from her fingertips to the rest of her arm. It was the hand that her younger self currently had in Rachel's grasp._

'Rachel.'

_Then everything goes black._

* * *

**Present Day:**

Two hours later, in Quinn's hospital room, a doctor walked in and interrupted Judy and Rachel. They both stood up and waited for the doctor to tell them what happened in surgery.

The doctor walked over and held out his hand to Rachel. "I'm Dr. Bennett one of Quinn's doctors."

Rachel shook his hand, then Judy spoke up. "I'm sorry Dr. Bennett. This is... ummm Quinn's sister, Rachel."

Doctor Bennett nodded then looked back at Judy. "Mrs. Fabray, your daughter's out of surgery, we were able to stop the internal bleeding, as we mentioned before about her spleen... we didn't remove it. Dr. Murphy believes the spleen is fine and still working as well as it can. However, if there is another re-bleed we will need to remove it."

Judy nodded, "Can we see her?"

"She's in the recovery ward, but a nurse will bring her up shortly."

"Are there any other changes?" Judy asked, silently asking if Quinn is out of her coma.

The doctor shook his head, "No, I'm sorry. It seems like Quinn is still working on recovering from her injuries before she wakes up."

Tears filled the older blonde's eyes, "About what I said before surgery... she said someone's name... does that mean anything?"

Doctor Bennett nodded, "It's a good sign that her brain is still functioning and able to process proper speech, but we won't know anything else until Quinn chooses to wake up."

"When will that be?" Rachel asked as tears filled her eyes, too.

"We aren't sure, Miss Fabray... it's up to Quinn on when she wants to wake up." Rachel tried not to looked shocked when the doctor called her Miss Fabray, she was meant to be Quinn's half-sister anyway. They were kind of related if you thought about it... her mom did adopt Quinn's daughter, Beth... so Beth would be classified as Rachel's non-biological half-sister, too. Does that mean Quinn would be... mmmm... too hard to work out. Rachel shook her head to concentrate back on the conversation.

The doctor was talking to Judy, "The nurses will continue to do their check ups on Quinn, and I'll come back this afternoon and check her status."

Judy nodded and thanked the doctor as he turned to leave.

Just as he left, a nurse pushed Quinn in the room. Rachel's eyesight landed on the girl laying on the bed and her eyes began to fill with tears. Quinn had cuts and bruises all over the left side of her face. She was sporting a black eye. Her right hand was encased in plaster. Quinn Fabray looked so fragile.

Judy wrapped her arms around the little brunette as Quinn was pushed into the room. Rachel just watched the nurse set all the monitors and IV drips back up. Once the nurses were finished they did a check on all vitals and wrote it down on Quinn's charts and exited the room. Rachel was still wrapped up in Judy's embrace as she continued to cry. "She looks a lot better. How about you go sit down next to her? I'm sure she'd appreciate another voice she knows."

Rachel nodded and then pulled out of the embrace from the older blonde. She then moved her chair and pulled it around to Quinn's left side and sat down. The brunette just sat and stared at the fragile girl laying in the hospital bed before her. She slowly lifted up her right hand, hesitating whether she should even touch the girl. Judy saw the brunette's hesitation. "It's okay, Rachel, you can touch her."

The brunette nodded and then placed her right hand on Quinn's left hand. She gasped out loud at feeling the fragile blonde's hand in hers. It felt so cold, yet warm at the same time. The contradictory feelings shot up her whole arm. She then wrapped her fingers securely around the blonde's. She stared down at their hands embraced for a few seconds and then looked up to Quinn. "Hi Quinn..." she trailed off as tears started to flow from her eyes as she continued to talk to the blonde.


	4. Chapter 3: Memories, Part 2

_I'm back with another chapter! I know the updates for this story is no where near as frequent as my 'Different Worlds' one, but I hope you all are sticking around to continue to read. I am still very passionate about this story and aim to complete it in its due time._

_Big thank you to my Beta, __**achelefan24**__. She is a very busy girl who still manages to put time aside to get these chapters back to me._

**I do not own any Glee.**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Memories, Part 2:**

**Quinn's Dream State:**

_Quinn's eyes start to refocus on a new memory. She looks around and finds herself in the choir room. Half of the football team sits on one side while the Glee Club sits on the other. She still feels tingles in her left hand, and wonders why they are still there. Rachel and Puck are singing a duet together of 'Need You Now' and she can't help but smile at how well they sing together. _

_She looks up at the chairs on the risers and finds her younger self sitting next to Sam. Her younger self is hunched over with her elbows on her knees and she's beaming as she watches Rachel and Puck perform, the older blonde smiles at seeing herself so carefree and happy. As the song is just about to finish, everything fades away._

* * *

_The blonde looked around and found herself again in the choir room. Mr. Schue and Coach Beiste were talking to both Glee and the football team about performing at half time during the Championship game and the Jocks weren't happy at all. Mr. Schue then went on about how the Cheerios have been given an ultimatum by Ms. Sylvester about choosing Cheerios or Glee. "They have a choice. Us, or the Cheerios competition," Mr. Schue stated._

_"Well, obviously Quinn is gonna choose the Cheerios," Rachel added quickly._

_Older Quinn scrunched up her face, and looked over at Rachel. _

_'_Why didn't Rachel mention either Santana or Brittany? Why did she just talk about me?'

_Finn started to back Quinn up but the older blonde didn't focus on him as everything started to fade black._

* * *

_Quinn pops up in the hallway and overhears her younger self talking to Santana about Brittany's fashion sense. They were both dressed in a carousel horse sweater and an argyle skirt. Tina then walks up to them and joins in on their fashion chat, "Seriously, she's a genius and an icon."_

_"Who is?" Rachel asks as she walks up to the girls._

_Older Quinn sees Santana roll her eyes but hears herself answer Rachel. "Brittany. Who did you think?"_

_"Who knew that taking off that Cheerios uniform would turn her into a fashion institution," Santana added._

_"Is this a joke?" Rachel asked._

_"No. That sweater is. Who wears a reindeer sweater?" the Latina voiced._

_"Uh, all three of you," Rachel said, starting to get frustrated._

_"No. This is a carousel horse," Tina said._

_"If you want to know what to wear, just look to Brittany," older Quinn hears her younger self say. The blonde actually then took the time to look at what she was wearing and what Rachel was wearing._

'They were quite similar… sorry, Rachel.'

_"Look. She took the look from me, okay? I paid her," Rachel said._

_"You're a terrible liar, Rachel," Tina spoke again._

_"I can't believe you would take this away from poor Brittany," younger Quinn says. Older Quinn bites on her lip as she watched herself talk to Rachel._

_"It's sad. You're just sad," Santana says._

_Rachel then storms off and Quinn's memory goes black._

* * *

_She sees her younger self walking up to Rachel, Quinn quickly looks around and from what she remembers they were at Rachel's house in Rachel's dads' Oscar room. Quinn refocuses on herself and then turned to look at Rachel._

_'_My God, what is she wearing?!'

_Rachel is dressed in a ridiculous green gown… Quinn didn't even know what it was… or where the brunette would have purchased something like that? Was there a Granny's R Us?_

_"Hey, girlfriend. Having fun?" Rachel enthusiastically asks younger Quinn._

_Older Quinn is about to watch her younger self reply but suddenly feels a tightness in her chest. It's like the shooting pain she felt when she had that memory of Britney Week. The blonde grabs her chest in pain._

'What the hell was that?'

_Then everything goes black._

* * *

_The blonde sees herself in a classroom, which is holding a Celibacy Club meeting. _

_'_Oh yeah, I rejoined that.'

_It only consisted of her younger self, Rachel and Ms. Pillsbury. The teacher just started the club meeting talking about their previous meeting which was about how Rachel spent the hour quizzing Quinn about her relationship with Finn. Older Quinn sees herself roll her eyes._

_"Questions somebody still refuses to answer," older Quinn hears Rachel whisper._

_The blonde turns to see her younger self answer Rachel, "And I will continue to refuse to answer them because they are none of your business. All I will reveal is that I rejoined the Celibacy Club to focus on me."_

'Is that the real reason why I rejoined?'

_"Me too. Finn is Kryptonite, which is why I'm focusing all my energies on my songwriting," Rachel happily voices._

_Ms. Pillsbury then goes on a rant about being terrified of the 'hose monster' or something, and lame 'Chastity Charms' but older Quinn stopped listening. The older blonde is starting to become fed up with all these flashbacks and memories._

'They all involve Rachel, in one-way or another. First I was being a bitch to Rachel, then I was kind of checking her out and thought she was hot... which I still don't understand why I even thought that, and then that hand touch...' _Quinn trails off. Her left hand still has tingles. _

'Why the hell am I seeing Rachel Berry?!' _Older Quinn thinks and anger starts to boil. _

_Before she could refocus her energies on Ms. Pillsbury, everything blurs away._

* * *

_Quinn shows up in the choir room and Miss Holliday is talking to them about sex education. Older Quinn notices herself sitting next to Rachel. Why they are sitting together, the older blonde has no idea, but for some reason she feels like she needs to watch herself and Rachel, so that's what she does. The blonde continues to watch while Miss Holliday is speaking about Finn thinking he got his girlfriend pregnant via hot tub, and that Brittany thinking that storks bring babies._

_The older blonde watches Rachel start to shift in her seat… to her it looks like Rachel is becoming uncomfortable but then she notices that Rachel moves her pointer finger and tries to brush it against her younger self._

'Okay, what the fuck was that?'

_She then sees herself staring at Rachel while the brunette starts to address Miss Holliday, "What about those of us who choose to remain celibate?" Quinn watches Rachel move to touch her younger self's right arm, but quickly sees herself push Rachel away, while Miss Holliday says, "Oh, well, I admire you. Although I think you're naive and possibly frigid, I do admire your choice."_

_Older Quinn burst out in laughter as she sees herself and Rachel stare at each other in shock._

_The substitute teacher then talks about how "...every intimate encounter that you're ever gonna have in your life is gonna start with a touch."_

'Okay... Ummm, Rachel just tried to touch me not even a minute ago... Coincidence? Hang on. What the hell am I thinking?'

_Miss Holliday then burst out singing 'Do You Wanna Touch.' Older Quinn turns and watches the performance. Santana and Brittany joined the substitute doing a dance routine with chairs, and the only thing older Quinn could think of in that moment was, _'Hot.'

_Rachel and her younger self are the only ones left sitting on the risers together until Miss Holliday dances over to them and pulls them down to join the rest of the Glee members. Older Quinn watches on as her younger self and Rachel dance with the substitute teacher._

_Then the memory starts to fade away._

* * *

_Quinn opens her eyes and looks around. She spots herself right near the choir room door, looking inside. She walks over to see what her younger self is looking at and notices that Rachel and Finn were in their alone. Chatting and laughing together. Older Quinn immediately ignores Rachel and Finn and even her younger self, she was over it, over everything. She wants out and wants out now. The blonde looks around and starts to scream._

'I don't want to be here! Send me home! Get me out of here!'_ Quinn yells out. But nothing happens. _

'I don't want to be here anymore! I'm over it! I'm over everything!' _But again nothing happens._

_Tears start to fill her eyes. She's not sure how much more she can handle. '_What is the point of me even being here, and why is Rachel the center of each and every memory?' _Quinn doesn't get it... But she doesn't want to get it._

_Everything fades black._

* * *

_Quinn opens her eyes and sees she is in the choir room. She rolls her eyes. _'I guess this isn't going to end any time soon.'

_Mr. Schue is telling them that they couldn't use the 'My Chemical Romance' song they planned to use for Regionals and Rachel steps up to voice her opinion on the matter, "I think we should write original songs for Regionals."_

_"All those in favor of voting Rachel down a second time?" Santana asks the Glee Club._

_Everyone starts to raise their hands, besides younger Quinn. Older Quinn watched herself address the club, "No, I think Rachel is right. This team works best when we push ourselves and do something a little different."_

_"Well, that's true, but if all the other teams are doing amazing songs we're not gonna be so good," Mercedes adds._

_"You're right. We're not gonna be as good. We're gonna be better. We won't be using other people's words or music. It'll be our own- our own heart, soul, not just our voices. We have a really talented songwriter in our midst. Rachel..." Older Quinn watches on as the brunette whips her head around to younger Quinn. "I was thinking maybe you and I could write a song together."_

_Older Quinn just shakes her head. _'One minute I'm checking out Rachel and the next minute I'm trying to sabotage Rachel's life... I don't get it.'

_"I'm with Quinn and Rachel. I mean if these two can agree on something, it's probably an idea worth considering," older Quinn hears Finn say._

_The Glee Club members start to discuss the idea of everyone writing songs for regionals, and just before things start to go black for Quinn, she sees Rachel turn around in her chair and lock eyes with her younger self._

* * *

_Older Quinn sees herself in the auditorium playing on the piano. She then notices Rachel coming in and walking up to her._

'Oh, no!' _If there was one memory from Junior year that she remembers between her and Rachel, this is it… well this one or Prom. _'Oh crap! Prom!'

_"You're late," she hears her younger self say._

_"We're friends, right?" Rachel asks._

_"Yeah, I guess so."_

_"Like, everything that happened last year. You gave your baby to my mom. We kind of bonded over it, right?" Rachel voices. A small pang of pain hits older Quinn in the chest._

_"What's your point?" the younger blonde asks._

_"My point is, is that- I know we haven't spent a lot of time together this year but I thought that we were close enough to be honest with each other."_

_"Go ahead. Ask me."_

_"Fine. Are you and Finn together?" Rachel asks._

_Older Quinn watches on. "Yes. It's been a couple of weeks. It's like Groundhog's Day with you, Rachel. How many times do you have to make the same mistake to realize it's not gonna work out?"_

_"Well, thank you for being honest with me, Quinn... and I'm happy for you and Finn. But don't go and try to rewrite history, okay? It was real between us. Her chose me over you," Rachel unhappily expresses. Older Quinn feels another hit to her chest, this time more painful than the others she's experienced._

_"And how long did that last for?" the younger blonde asks._

_"Why are you being so mean?" Rachel sadly states. Quinn watches her younger self start to hop off the piano stool to walk closer to Rachel._

_"Do you wanna know how this story plays out? I get Finn. You get heartbroken. And then Finn and I will stay and start a family. I'll become a successful real estate agent and Finn will take over Kurt's dad's tire shop. You don't belong here, Rachel..." Older Quinn watches her younger self start to tear up. "...and you can't hate me for helping to send you on your way."_

_Rachel started to shake her head, "No. I'm not giving up on Finn. It's not over between us."_

_"Yes, it is! You're so frustrating!" Older Quinn hears her younger self yell. The older blonde could see and hear how emotional she was getting and the pain in her heart was starting to become more painful. "And that is why you can't write a good song, because you live in this little schoolgirl fantasy of life. Rachel, if you keep looking for that happy ending then you are never gonna _get it right_. So we're done with that, and why don't we just return to our work, okay?"_

_The older blonde watches herself exhale and walk back to take a seat on the piano stool. "No. I think I'm gonna write this song on my own," Rachel states as she turns to leave. Older Quinn watches her go and sees the brunette start to cry._

'What the hell have I done? And why do I feel horrible? But most of all, why do I feel like this conversation felt like it had nothing to do with Finn, but everything about how I felt?'

_Then everything blurs away._

* * *

_Quinn opens her eyes and notices she's at the backstage of an auditorium, but not McKinley's. She then hears the voice of Rachel singing and turns to find herself at Regionals. The brunette is singing 'Get It Right.' Older Quinn notices herself standing just behind Finn. The older blonde walks up to herself and continues to stare between her younger self and Rachel._

_Older Quinn closes her eyes and continues to listen to Rachel sing. Trying hard to not feel the pain in her chest..._ 'What's going on?'

_Once Rachel finishes singing, Quinn expects to go to another memory but the brunette introduces the New Directions and they start to sing 'Loser Like Me'. Older Quinn watches her younger self and the rest of the Glee Club perform trying to not think about the pain, but as she watches herself throw the Big Gulp cup filled with confetti and watches herself look over at Finn and Rachel hugging, the pain gets too strong and she grabs her chest and hunches over... Luckily everything turns black._

* * *

_The older blonde sees herself in the choir room with the rest of the Glee members and Mr. Schue is talking about awarding a MVP for Regionals, "So, per an unanimous vote by all of you, our Regionals M.V.P is... Miss. Rachel Berry."_

_Everyone starts to clap and Quinn sees herself turn around in her chair and smile at Rachel. _'Yes I do remember voting for Rachel, she did deserve it with the song she wrote.'

_Rachel stands up to get her little star trophy off Mr. Schue and then turns to talk to the Glee members, "Well, first of all, I just wanna say how amazing the song you guys wrote was. I-I was so inspired. You know, it's- it's funny, I've won a lot of trophies before for singing competitions and dancing competitions but I've always felt like the girl who never gets the brass ring."_

_Quinn watches her younger self as Rachel continues. "And maybe I never will. But today and at Regionals the way you guys believed in me and took a chance with me- All I've ever wanted was to feel special and to feel chosen. And I just, um-" Quinn watches Rachel's eyes fill with tears. "I wanted to thank you guys so much for giving me that..."_

_Older Quinn watches the Glee members jump up and go give Rachel a hug. Another shooting pain goes through her heart when she watches her younger self get up and go join the hug. _

_But then the memory blurs away._

* * *

_Younger Quinn and Finn walk up to Rachel who was at her locker. "So, uh, the Brainiacs asked us to be benefit heads for the Night of Neglect," Finn says._

_Younger Quinn smiles, "And we would like to select you head of talent relations."_

_"We figured you're probably used to relating to talent because you're so talented," Finn adds._

_"Well, first, I'm honored that you came to me. But I think it's a little insensitive of you to be flaunting your dating in my face."_

_"Fantastic," the younger blonde voices with a broad smile, ignoring the last part of Rachel's sentence. "Cause we are having problems with one of our performers." _

_Both Quinn and Finn then go on to tell Rachel about how Mercedes wanted green M&M's, humidifiers and puppies to wash her hands with._

_"Stars make demands the way that babies make messes in their diapers. They can't help it. What a star wants is to just feel appreciated and respected. They just wanna feel like they're being heard," Rachel nods enthusiastically._

_"Well, she seemed pretty serious about the puppy," Finn says._

_"Well, obviously, hers is a talent that we have neglected. I can relate. So leave it to me. I'll take care of it," Rachel says as she closes her locker and turns to walk away._

_Older Quinn watches Finn smile at the brunette walking away and then notices herself looking a bit angry and upset... then the memory fades to black._

* * *

_"Oh, my God. You're getting a nose job," older Quinn hears her younger self say as she pops up in the choir room._

_"I'm considering having a minor procedure to repair my deviated septum."_

_"So a nose job!" Santana states._

_"Look, I'm happy with the way that I look, okay?" _

'Obviously you're not if you want a nose job, Rachel,' _Quinn thinks as she shakes her head. _

_"And I've embraced my nose. But let's say I wanted to have a slightly more demure nose? Like Quinn's, for example," Rachel comments. _

_Older Quinn scrunches up her face, she totally forgot about Rachel wanting to get a nose like hers. The older blonde watches her younger self choose to not look at the brunette. Quinn knew why she didn't stare at Rachel, but only she knew why... no one else found out until later that week, until one of her deepest darkest secrets was revealed... Lucy Caboosey._

_"I would never change my appearance for vanity but the doctor said that it could possibly improve my talent which would help us all for Nationals, so-" Rachel says with a shrug of her shoulders._

_The older blonde shakes her head… _'This is ridiculous,' _the blonde states before everything fades away._

* * *

_Quinn opens her eyes and sees her younger self flicking through a magazine in the doctors office and Rachel's sitting very uncomfortably next to her. "Thanks for doing this," Rachel says as she leans over to the younger blonde. _

_Older Quinn watches herself turn to face Rachel with a smile plastered on her face, "I'm surprised more girls haven't asked me. My nose is awesome. I can totally count on your vote, right?"_

_The older blonde shakes her head. "Yeah. T- Totally," Rachel says._

_"Okay," younger Quinn smiles as she turns to look back at her magazine in her hands._

_Older Quinn continues to watch Rachel, the brunette reaches out to grab something off the coffee table but then thinks twice and doesn't get it. The older blonde can tell that Rachel is fighting to ask the younger blonde something. Older Quinn watches Rachel turn to her younger self, "So what's it like?"_

_The older blonde sees her younger self turn to Rachel. "Looking like you look."_

_Older Quinn shakes her head, _'How can Rachel not see how pretty she actually is... Maybe it has something to do with the nicknames you used to call her, Quinn…' _the older blonde says to herself. _

_"I pretty much have a warped sense of the world. Being a hot 17-year-old, you can get away with or do anything you want. So I kind of always assume that people are always nice and accommodating."_

_The older blonde then sees the doctor knock on the open door and walk into the waiting room and the younger blonde and Rachel stand up. "Okay... So, we, uh, ready to pull the trigger?" the doctor asks as he looks up from the chart._

_"Not- Not quite yet. I was kind of hoping that I could get an idea of what I might look like after the procedure," Rachel turns to look at Quinn who is smiling back at her. "Um, this is my friend Quinn."_

_"Nice nose," the doctor states._

_"Thank you," older Quinn watches herself say._

_"Very nice," the doctor adds._

_"Yeah, well, Rachel wants it," the younger blonde states as she turns to look back at the brunette._

_"No problem. So I'll click some pics, make up some photo composites. We'll be ready to rock and roll," the doctor adds as he walks off._

_Older Quinn watches herself smile at Rachel and lightly places a comforting hand on the brunette's shoulder, her left hand shooting with tingles... Just like when she watched her and Rachel touch hands in 'Dog Days are Over'._

* * *

**Present Day:**

"Rachel, Dear. Do you mind staying a while longer? I'd like to go home and pick up some extra things for Quinn. It's just I haven't wanted to leave her bedside since everything happened," Judy struggles to whisper out. It was obvious the women was worn out.

Rachel looks up from staring at Quinn. She had been talking to the non-responsive blonde for a few hours now, while Judy just sat there trying to find some light in this dark time. The brunette begins to nod, "Of course, Mrs. Fabray. I don't plan on going anywhere, my fathers' know where I am."

Judy nods, stands up and grabs her things to leave. "Will you call if..." the exhausted older blonde starts but can't finish the last part of her sentence.

The brunette starts to nod, "I'll call if there is any slight change. Take you're time, Mrs. Fabray... maybe go have a warm bath. It might help you relax a bit."

"I think I'll start to relax once Quinn decides to wake up and I know she's okay... but thank you, Sweetie," Judy says as she starts to make her way out of the hospital room, turning around to take one last look at her daughter laying there, a tear sliding down her face.

Once Judy left the room, Rachel refocuses back on Quinn, "You're going to wake up, Quinn... you have to. There are a lot of people here waiting for you... More than you think you know..." Rachel trails off and she moves her right hand to re-embrace with the blonde's left hand.

* * *

**Quinn's Dream State:**

_Older Quinn sees herself back in the choir room, she spots herself on a stool next to Rachel and they have just started to sing a mash up of 'I Feel Pretty/Unpretty.' The older blonde stands there and watches herself perform her first and only duet with the brunette._

'We actually sound really good together,'_ older Quinn says to herself. While the older blonde watches her younger self sing with Rachel, she thinks it's the perfect time to think over what these past flashbacks and memories are about and why she was here. What happened before she started having these flashbacks and memories...?_

'Car crash!' _Quinn says out loud as her eyes widen with realization... _'I was texting Rachel... and then there was a truck... Oh crap!' _The blonde starts to freak out. _'Am I dead?'_ she asks herself. _'But why am I experiencing this pain? First the stomach and now this chest pain I've been feeling... You don't feel pain when you're dead do you? And what's with this tingling feeling with my hand... When did that start?' _The blonde starts to think, her eyebrows shooting up to her hairline. _'When Rachel and I touched... Rachel! All these flashbacks and memories involve Rachel in one way or another... But why?' _Quinn says as she shakes her head. She has no idea why. _'First I was being an absolute bitch to Rachel... then I was checking her out... then I thought she was hot. Now I feel like I'm just going in circles with my emotions with her...' _Quinn was utterly confused. So being Quinn Fabray, she ignored it all and refocused back on the performance. _

**Rachel**, _Quinn_, T_ogether_

**I feel pretty** _(You can buy your hair if it won't grow)  
_**Oh so pretty** _(You can fix your nose if he says so)  
_**I feel pretty and witty and bright**_ (You can buy all the make-up that M.A.C. can make)  
But if_ you can't look inside you_  
Find out who am I to  
_Be in a position to make me feel so **damn unpretty**

_I feel pretty_

But unpretty

_After the performance, older Quinn watches herself turn to look into Rachel's saddened brown eyes and then another sharp pain shoots through her chest. The older blonde pulls her hands up to try and relieve the pain but it just continues to get stronger and stronger... As if the pain is pumping harder and harder with every heartbeat._

'Well fuck... I guess I can't ignore this...'

_Then everything goes black._

* * *

_The bell rings and Quinn and Finn open up their lockers to grab their books for their next classes._

_"What you're doing is terrible." _

_"I have a nice nose. Rachel asked me for help, and I'm giving it to her. And once again, we are fighting about Rachel. I'm your girlfriend."_

_"Look, this isn't about who's my girlfriend. Mr. Schue is trying to get us to accept ourselves for who we are and you're helping Rachel do the exact opposite. That's not cool."_

_"Well, maybe I'm not down with this week's lesson," older Quinn see's herself say, the younger blonde slamming the locker and walking off, not listening to anything Finn has to say._

* * *

_Quinn sees herself amongst the other Glee members in the choir room, and watches Rachel talk to everyone about getting a nose job, stating that it will be less Hebraic and more 'Fabrayic.' Older Quinn watches herself, the younger blonde isn't making eye contact with the brunette while she speaks and shows the Glee Club the pictures of what she will look like after the surgery._

_"Rachel, please don't do this... You're beautiful," Finn says, cutting off Rachel's rant._

'I wish I had the courage to say that...'

_"This isn't a discussion. I have made up my mind. Rachel Berry is getting a nose job."_

_Quinn shakes her head as everything blurs away._

* * *

_Quinn opens up her eyes and sees her younger self and Finn just finish singing a duet of 'I Don't Wanna Know,' receiving an awkward small clap from the rest of the Glee Club members._

_"Yeah, it was lovely, but I prefer Quinn's duet performance of 'Lucky' with Sam better. Since you and Sam have become closer lately, maybe you should do duets together more often," Rachel voices. Older Quinn started to chuckle at Rachel's blatant backlash. _

_"Where is Sam? Quinn and Kurt are both here today, so we know he's not doing the dirty," Artie said._

_Quinn watches her younger self ignore Artie and look straight at Rachel, "I know what you're doing. You want Finn and I to stop singing together so that you can sing with him again."_

_"Frankly, yes. Finn and I have amazing proven harmonies. When it comes to Nationals, it makes more sense for him to be paired with me," Rachel states back with confidence._

_"Well, it's not happening. Not as long as Finn wants to be with me," the younger blonde voices angrily._

_"Wait. I thought you said this relationship was about trust," Finn adds._

_"Oh, I trust you. I just don't trust her!"_

_"Quinn, I don't think you can mandate who pairs up for Nationals. All right? Vocal Adrenaline doesn't need any help from us," Mr. Schue states._

_"I love being here, and I want to win... but my relationship comes first. I'm sorry, but, Finn, if you want to be with me, no more songs with her," younger Quinn says as she turns to leave and storms off out of the choir room, the storm off was just like the one older Quinn recently watched at her locker with Finn._

'And they say Rachel is over dramatic.'

* * *

_Quinn refocuses on her surroundings and notices she's back in the choir room… yet again. The older blonde sees Rachel start to talk, "Mr. Schuester? If it's all right with you, I'd like to do my own reinterpretation of my favorite Fleetwood Mac song."_

_"Great, Rachel. Which song?" Mr. Schue says handing over a microphone._

_"'Go Your Own Way'. It's a song about the painful breakup between Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks..." Rachel stands up and walks to the middle of the choir room. "Traditionally, it's sung by a man but today Rachel Berry's gonna put her own feminine twist on it." Turning to point to Puck "Hit it." _

_Older Quinn watches the brunette sing 'Go Your Own Way'._

'Being subtle was never your forte.'

_The Glee Club starts to clap. While older Quinn turns to her younger self, looking pretty pissed off and not clapping at Rachel. "Don't you think it's maybe a little inappropriate that you chose to sing a love song to my guy?"_

_"You're such a hypocrite! You Little Miss Perfect Prom Queen! You're a cheater who cheats in cheap motels with Sam!"_

_"Nothing is going on between Sam and I," younger Quinn voices, getting frustrated._

_"Enough, guys," Mr. Schue states, while the memory starts to fade away._

* * *

_Quinn sees herself and Finn at Breadstix walking over to Rachel, Jesse St. James... _'Oh I forgot he showed back up.' _Mercedes and Sam. Older Quinn stops dead in her tracks when she looks at Rachel._

'She's stunning.'

_"You look amazing. And don't forget to vote Hudson-Fabray tonight." Older Quinn rolls her eyes as she hears her younger self tell the small group. Finn starts to talk but she gets distracted, by staring at Rachel... _

'Why am I just seeing you?' _Older Quinn whispers out, but obviously gets no response as everything goes black._

* * *

_The blonde refocuses and sees all the junior year dressed formally in the gymnasium._

'Prom!'

_The older blonde turns to the stage and sees Rachel up their performing 'Jar Of Hearts'. Quinn watches the brunette perform and notices that Rachel isn't taking her eyes off one particular spot. She looks through the crowd of students dancing and notices that her younger self is slow dancing with Finn. Rachel is staring straight at them._

_Finn is staring up at the brunette as she continues to sing. A sharp pain pumped through Quinn's chest as she sees the two staring at each other._

'Fuck!'_ the older blonde yells out loud. _'It keeps coming back… and it hurts worse, every time!'

_Just as Quinn refocuses back on her younger self and Finn, she noticed herself look up and watch the brunette. It was only for a few seconds but there was something in the younger blondes eyes that held so much emotion… so much meaning._

_But before the older blonde could think about what she was thinking, the memory blurred away._

* * *

_"Quinn, you need to calm down," Rachel says as she storms into the bathroom after Quinn._

'Oh, no!' _older Quinn says with wide eyes as she watches her younger self and Rachel in the bathroom together._

_"This is your fault! Nobody ever would have voted for me cause they know he would rather be with you!" the younger blonde yells with tears in her eyes._

_"That's not true-" *SLAP* Older Quinn gasps as she sees the younger version of her slap Rachel across the face… hard._

_"I'm so sorry," younger Quinn expresses as more tears start to form in her eyes. _

_Rachel just shakes her head, not saying anything, so younger Quinn continues. "There's no way I'm staying at this school. I'm gonna transfer out," the younger blonde states as she turns to face the mirror. Older Quinn continues to watch Rachel. The brunette slowly moves her hand up to rub her face and walks to the mirror to exam the mark that Quinn left._

_"Most girls would be upset about being slapped in the face but I happen to appreciate the drama of it," Rachel says as she continues to look in the mirror. Older Quinn watches her younger self turn away from the mirror and lean back against the sink. "I know you think it's hard to be you, Rachel. At least you don't have to be terrified all the time."_

_The older blonde watches Rachel dampen a paper towel at the sink, "What are you scared of?"_

'Not being honest with the feelings I have for you,' _Older Quinn whispers out loud and all of a sudden her eyes go wide and her chest tightens... _'What did I just say?'

_"The future," the older blonde hears her younger self say, pulling herself back into the memory in front of her. "When all of this is gone."_

_"Look. You have nothing to be scared of. You're a very pretty girl, Quinn. Prettiest girl I've ever met, but... you're a lot more than that. Here," Rachel says as she reaches down and takes the wet paper towel from the blondes hands, "May I help?" Rachel asks as she starts to fix up Quinn's makeup._

'I just slapped Rachel in the face. And she's here asking to help me…'_ Older Quinn shakes her head as things start to fade away… but not until she received tingles in her cheek as the brunette wipes the wet paper towel on her face._

* * *

_Quinn looks around and sees herself in a parking lot, the older blonde spots her younger self getting into Finn's car, she walks over there and looks inside. "Sorry. Long line in the restroom. Everyone was fixing their mascara. You did such a great job with the funeral. I'm so proud of you. Why are you crying?" older Quinn hears her younger self say to Finn._

_"Because I'm breaking up with you," Finn expresses._

_Older Quinn watches her younger self's reaction, "Because of Rachel?"_

'Rachel is the first person that comes to my mind?'

_"Cause you still love her?" younger Quinn adds._

_"I shouldn't have done this with you. I thought that I could fix everything from last year, but I- I can't," Finn says not looking at Quinn. "I just can't. And... that feeling that Sue was talking about in there... of being tethered to someone, I- I just- I don't feel that way about you."_

_"But you do with her?" younger Quinn asks, Finn starts to slowly nod. "No. We're not breaking up. I can handle your confusion with Rachel until you get over it. We're gonna stay together, and next year we'll be prom king and queen and-"_

_Finn turns and looks at Quinn, "Just stop it. Okay? I don't want that life."_

_Older Quinn sees her younger self exhale. _'You deserve better than this,' _older Quinn says out loud to her younger self as she shakes her head._

_"Don't you feel anything anymore? This is real. This is happening," Finn says raising his voice. _

_"Are you happy now?" younger Quinn says as tears start to flow down her cheeks. "Is this me feeling enough for you?"_

_"Quinn, I'm sorry. I still love you," Finn expresses trying to reach out to Quinn, but the blonde moves away. "Just don't touch me!" younger Quinn raises her voice and opens up the car door getting out and slamming the door as she walks away. Older Quinn watches her younger self walk away from the car as the memory starts to fade away._

* * *

_The blonde opens her eyes and sees herself leaning against a bench looking at a magazine with Santana. Older Quinn looks around and realizes she's in the lobby of the place they stayed at in New York for Nationals. The older blonde then spots Finn and Rachel walking past her younger self and Santana talking together. "So what's going on with you and Jesse?" Quinn hears Finn ask the brunette._

_Older Quinn turns and looks at herself, she wasn't in the mood to watch Rachel interact with the tall boy because of the last memory she just encountered, so she watched herself. She watched her younger self just stare at the two, the blonde ignoring what Santana was saying to her... _

_The memory then disappearing._

* * *

_Quinn sees her young self, Mercedes, Tina, Santana, Brittany, Kurt and Lauren all having a hardcore pillow fight in the girl's hotel room, feathers were going everywhere. Older Quinn watches herself jump over to Rachel who's sitting at the desk writing, what Quinn can only remember must be a song for Nationals, the older blonde watches as her younger self smashes the pillow in her hands against Rachel's head and then jumps away to rejoin the pillow fight._

_Older Quinn burst out laughing... _'Woops.'_ Everything then fades away._

* * *

_The older blonde refocuses and sees her younger self hunched over the bathroom sink, tears in her eyes. _

'What happened?'

_"Quinn, quit hogging the bathroom. I needs to re-pencil my eyebrows on," Santana yells through the door as she bangs on the glass. _

_Older Quinn watches herself wipe the tears away and turns from the mirror opening the door, "It's all yours." The older blonde then follows her younger self out and sees that Brittany is also with Santana._

_"Everybody's already in the other room working," Santana says as her and Brittany follow the blonde to the beds._

_"Oh, yeah? Is Mr. Schue in there? Cause I think I'm gonna tell him that Rachel and Kurt keep sneaking off," younger Quinn states as she grab her jacket and turns back to her friends._

_"You can't do that. He'll have to suspend them," Brittany states._

_"And then there goes our chances at Nationals. Darn," older Quinn hears her younger self say sarcastically._

_"You know what? We get it. You're pissed about Finn dumping your sweet ass. Get over it," Santana states._

_"I don't wanna get over it, okay?" younger Quinn lashes out. _

_"The only person that you're sabotaging here is yourself," the Latina adds._

_Younger Quinn's voice raises high as she yells at Santana, "I don't care about some stupid show choir competition!"_

_Brittany's eyes go wide as Santana yells back at Quinn, "Well, you should because this is the one chance that we have to actually feel good about ourselves."_

_Older Quinn watches her younger self calm down and start to tear up, "Aren't we supposed to be the popular girls?" Santana and Brittany quickly scoff. "So why can't we have our dreams come true? She has love. Tina has it. Even Zizes hooks up."_

'She? Who's she?'

_Tears start to fall down the younger blondes face, as she goes to sit down on the edge of the bed, Santana and Brittany quickly following. Older Quinn sees her younger self cry. A shape pain hits the older blonde in the chest and tears start to fill her eyes. "I just want somebody to love me."_

_Santana starts to talk but older Quinn is too distracted by the pain in her chest, her heartbeat is pounding harder than ever before and the pain is excruciating... Time starts to go back and she looks around her and it looks like she has just pressed a button to rewind. It starts to play again and she sees herself standing back up with Santana and Brittany. "She has love." And then it fast forwards, the pain still pumping through her arteries… but she tries to focus, she sees her younger self again on the bed with Santana and Brittany on either side of her, "I just want somebody to love me."_

_Older Quinn thinks... _'She has love... I just want somebody to love me...' _Past memories start to resurface and then it clicks... Eyes go wide, her hand clutching her chest, her heartbeat pounding and pounding away... Faster and harder than she's ever felt..._

'I'm in love with Rachel Berry.'

_And then Quinn feels her heartbeat literally stop within her chest as the pain gets too much and everything goes black... but this time she's scared that she's never going to wake back up..._

* * *

**Present Day:**

"No Finn, I can not come watch 'Hot Tub Time Machine' with you. I'm with Quinn and she needs me right now," Rachel said angrily in the phone.

"Come on, Rach… You've been avoiding me since the wedding. What's going on?" Finn asks through the phone.

"What's going on? Do you really have the audacity to say something like that! Quinn is in a coma, Finn… because she was heading to our wedding and had a car accident," the brunette huffs.

"Yeah… but she's in a coma… meaning that she won't know if you're not there. So come over, I miss you."

Rachel's eyes go wide, "Did you just hear what you said, Finn? How inconsiderate do you want to be. Quinn is our friend, we should all be here for moral support, even if she's unconscious. All our other friends have been texting me while I've been here, all asking how she is… and what have you been doing? Asking for me to come over!"

"She won't remember anything, Rach," Finn voices.

Rachel scoffs, "You don't know what the mind can do while in such a stressful state. Studies have shown that people can hear and remember what happens while they are in a comatose state… and maybe Quinn's dreaming… and dealing with some stuff we can't comprehend… she might need someone here… and I want to be that someone… I feel like I need be that someone."

"Are you breaking up with me?" Finn asks ignoring the brunette.

"We were getting married only a few days ago, Finn… of course not. But if you're not going to be mature about this, then I'm hanging up the phone now!" Rachel huffs one more time and disconnects the phone call before Finn can respond.

Rachel closes her eyes and takes a steadying breath before turning to reface the blonde in the bed. She places her phone in her lap and then moves her hand up to lightly touch the blonde's cheek. "I'm sorry about that. Finn can be so insensitive at times… I guess he just doesn't understand everything that's going on. No one actually does… everyone has been texting me asking if you're okay and I don't know what to tell them. What should I tell them, Quinn?"

The brunette takes another breath and then moves her hand down to embrace Quinn's. "Santana texted me and said she tried to come visit today but the nurse refused. She even told her that you were sisters, but the nurse didn't believe her and told her to go away. Apparently the nurse didn't believe that you could have both a Latina and a Jewish sister," Rachel lightly chuckled, "I can only imagine what Santana would have said to that… I'm surprised we didn't hear her, but I guess I'm lucky that I came here first. You're mom has been so kind to me… and I don't even deserve it," Rachel expresses as a tear starts to flow down her cheek. "I'm so sorry, Quinn. I just hope that when you wake up you don't hate me and want to slap me for what I've done to you… even if I think I deserve it."

Rachel pauses and then lightly chuckles, "You remember what happened between us last year at Prom?" The brunette shakes her head and lightly smiles, "You know I think you earned that win… if the majority of our school didn't want to torment Kurt, I think that you would have won… I voted for you," Rachel whispers out.

Rachel hears her phone buzz and looks down to see a new text... from Finn. The brunette rolls her eyes and then places the phone back in her lap, the screen still displaying a new text message... the brunette was obviously ignoring it. "Sorry, that was Finn, again," Rachel said as she looks back up at the blonde.

"You know these past few days I haven't said anything to him, I've been too distracted with worrying about you... I want to make sure you're okay, Quinn. You need to be okay... I need you to be okay, Quinn." Rachel takes a breath and gives their embraced hands a light squeeze, "It's okay for me to be distracted, right? And not want to talk to Finn right now? Our wedding can wait... right?" Rachel shakes her head. "It's okay to be angry with Finn right now, right? He was so tactless... but Finn is so immature sometimes. Finn and I will work it out... because you always forgive your first true love, right?" Rachel whispers out. It was like she was wanting Quinn to agree with her. "And Finn is mine... right?" the brunette adds.

Then before Rachel can say anything else, the monitors start to beep alarmingly and a nurse comes running in. The brunette jumps up. "What's going on?" Rachel yells as tears start to fall.

The nurse ignores her and immediately pushes her way to the back of the room and presses a button, more beeping sounds errupt and Rachel yells out as nurses and doctors run into the room. "What's happening?!"

"Where's your mother?" one of the nurses asks.

"She... she's at home... she went home. What's wrong with Quinn?" Rachel breathes out as tears run down her face.

"Get the crash cart!" a doctor yells as he starts cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Quinn.

"What's going on?!" Rachel yells.

"Get her out of here!" the doctor yells as he continues to push on Quinn's chest.

The nurse that just spoke to her pulls her by the arm to the door, "You need to call your mother... right now."

"Flat line!" another doctor yells as she read the monitor.

"Quinn!" Rachel yells as she gets pulled from the doorway to not look inside. She tries to pull out of the nurses grasp but she is too weak to do anything. The last thing she sees as her eyes get torn away from the doorway is the doctor placing the defibrillator paddles on the blondes bare chest and yelling out "CLEAR!"

Rachel chokes out tears as she hears the sound of the defibrillator shoot an electric current through Quinn's body, trying to make her heart repump life back into her.


	5. Chapter 4: Dreams, Part 1

_I'm so sorry! I know it's been forever since the last update. Hope you are all sticking around to continue to read. My excuse is University and also it's really hard to re-watch season 3… because really? That wasn't a good season at all._

_Big thanks to my Beta, __**achelefan24**__, who is super busy with her studies, yet still takes time away from them to help me out. _

**I do not own any Glee.**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Dreams, Part 1:**

_All the things one has forgotten scream for help in dreams. – Elias Canetti._

_Dreams… there are so many meanings this word holds… there are so many theories that people have created. Will anyone be able to get it right? Or will dreams just continue to be a theory… a thought, one person believes?_

_We can break them down. A lucid dream: a dream when you're aware that you're dreaming. They can be realistic and vivid, we can even try to manipulate them… a dreamer can take a degree of control of the imaginary experience._

_Do you even want to take control and manipulate your dreams? Or do you just want to sit back and listen and watch… to let your unconscious come forth and have its way. Maybe show you things you never really thought or looked closely to. Maybe even show you things you missed…_

* * *

**Present Day:**

Judy rushed through the wards of the hospital. She didn't care about the 'no running' signs posted throughout the hospital. She needed to see her daughter and she needed to see her now. The older blonde almost broke when Rachel called her distraught.

The elderly lady stormed through the ICU doors and rushed into her daughter's room, searching for her daughter laying in her bed… but there was no daughter and no bed. Judy spotted Rachel in the chair she was positioned in when talking to Quinn, the brunette had her head down and was hyperventilating. Rachel didn't even notice that someone had stepped foot in the room.

"Rachel, where's Quinnie?" Judy breathed out, fresh tears filling her eyes.

Rachel looked up and tried to get her breathing under control, "They… they won't… t-tell me anything."

Judy swirled around and hurried out the door, "Where is my daughter!" she voiced in a worried rush, raising her voice.

A nurse spotted the panic-stricken mother and hurried her way over to Judy, "Mrs. Fabray, why don't we go into Quinn's room and talk."

The older blonde shook her head; "Tell me my daughter's okay," Judy said, her voice going higher due to panic.

"Quinn is fine, Mrs. Fabray… but I think you may need to take a seat," the dark haired nurse expressed.

Judy sighed a sigh of relief and nodded her head. The mother then walked into Quinn's hospital room, pulling her chair over to Rachel's and sitting down, reaching her hand over to embrace the brunette's. "Rachel, Sweetie… Quinnie's okay."

Rachel looked up, tears streamed down her face as she started to shake her head, "She was dead... her heart stop... I saw her laying there… she was dead… dead…" the brunette stuttered out, bursting out in tears starting to hyperventilate again.

The nurse quickly intervenes, grabbing a chair and sitting in front of the two. "We resuscitated her heart, Rachel. Quinn's okay." Judy whipped her head around to the nurse, who quickly informed the women on what happened in her daughter's life while she was at home.

"So Quinn's okay?" Judy asked; she wanted to make sure her daughter was still in this hospital somewhere… alive.

"Yes. Dr. Murphy has ordered for your daughter to be taken down for an fMRI on her brain. She wants to take a closer look at your daughter's brain functions. The CT scan that was taken just after your daughter came out of her first surgery isn't enough information for us anymore. We're going to assess Quinn's comatose state and see if there are any areas in the brain that are more active than others. It may help the doctors come up with a timeframe for when she is going to wake up. Though we are very hopeful that there won't be any permanent brain damage to Quinn's brain function, mainly because you stated that you heard her say something this morning. Dr. Murphy has also ordered an MRI on Quinn's spinal cord. We want to see if her spinal cord injuries from the crash have healed well," the nurse disclosed to Judy.

Judy just nodded. Rachel looked up and sniffled, "Spinal cord injuries?"

The older blonde looked over to the nurse, "I haven't told her yet."

The nurse nodded and stood up from her chair, "Let me know if you need anything. Quinn should be back up in an hour… and Dr. Murphy or Dr. Bennett will come up later to tell you the results from the two scans," the dark haired lady expressed and then left the two alone.

Judy turned back to Rachel, "When Quinn was brought in and you and Quinn's other friends waited till she was out of surgery, did the doctor inform you on anything that happened?"

Rachel shook her head, wiping her tears away with a well overused tissue, "The doctor just told us that Quinn was out of surgery but in a coma, he didn't go into any details," the brunette stifled out, trying to get her breathing back together.

The blonde nodded, "Well during the car accident, Quinn suffered some serious brain and spinal cord injuries… but because she said your name this morning the doctors are taking that as a good sign that her brain injuries have healed well." Rachel nodded and Judy continued, "However, there hasn't been any progress on Quinn's spinal cord… the doctors haven't told me any progress on her spinal cord today because she's had surgery and recovering from this morning and now what recently happened, so I think they're just making sure Quinn is going to live… but after her first surgery and yesterday they have tried to assess Quinn's injuries to her lower back and legs and they believe Quinn has severely injured that part of her spinal cord," Judy exhaled as new tears formed in her eyes, she hasn't wanted to think about Quinn's spinal cord injuries, she just wanted to focus on having her daughter wake up.

"What's that mean?" Rachel asked, fresh tears also forming in her eyes. The brunette started to shake her head. She knew… she just didn't want it to be true.

"Quinn could be a paraplegic… she might never have full function of her legs again…" Judy cried out.

Rachel burst out in tears; she turned and pulled the blonde in for a hug. They embraced each other as they cried. "Quinn…" Rachel whispered out as she continued to cry.

* * *

**Quinn's Dream State:**

_The blonde slowly opens her eyes, placing a hand over her upper chest as she does… _'No more pain…'_ Quinn then takes in her surroundings and notices she's underneath the bleachers. She sees her younger self sporting a new look._

'My Skank phase… thank God that tattoo was fake.'

_Quinn watches her younger self light up a cigarette with the help of a fellow Skank, Ronnie._

"_Hey, Quinn," the blonde hears. Older Quinn closes her eyes as tears start to form in her eyes._

'Rachel…'

_The older blonde turns to look at Rachel. "We were friends once. Okay? And maybe when you cut off all your hair last year and thought it would solve all your problems, I should have spoken up. Maybe when you dropped out of society this summer and started dating that 40-year-old skateboarder, I should have said…"_

'That was actually a rumor.'

"_I'm not coming back to Glee Club," the younger blonde angrily voices, cigarette between her fingers._

"_We need you. Okay? Have you seen those-those purple pianos around school? We're planning this… this big, you know, recruiting number, and it's going to be a tribute to the Go-Go's. I mean, who doesn't love the Go-Go's?" Rachel voiced desperately._

_Older Quinn ignores what Sheila said and continues to look at Rachel as tears fall down her face. _'How did I not know…' _older Quinn chokes out._

"_We need your… your tremulous alto and your Belinda Carlisle glamour," Rachel added._

_It was 'The Mack' who spoke up next. Again, older Quinn ignores everyone else but Rachel. Tears continuing to fall as she shakes her head, _'I'm so sorry, Rachel… for everything I did to you. Why would I do that? I was in love with her... and I still am…'_ older Quinn softly stutters out._

"_I'm sorry you're so sad, Quinn. And… maybe you're not going to believe me because we were never really close, but I'm sad not seeing you in the choir room. And we've all been through so much together. We're a family, and this is our year to get it right," Rachel honestly expresses._

'Get what right?'_ older Quinn chokes._

"_We would love to have you back in the Glee Club whenever you're ready. Okay?" Rachel sadly says as she turns and walks away. Older Quinn doesn't even look at her younger self. Instead, she watches Rachel walk away and continues to cry until the dream fades away._

* * *

_Q__uinn looks around and sees that she is in the choir room. The older blonde feeling much better, even with the last dream she was in. Older Quinn looks around the room and spots Blaine, who's starting to sing, 'Last Friday Night.' She rolls her eyes, and then looks to the risers. She spots her younger self sitting next to Rachel and smiles._

_The older blonde continues to wait for her younger self to interact with the brunette; the two jump up together and start to dance, jumping around and hopping up on a tabletop to dance together._

_They split up and older Quinn's eyesight follows Rachel who has started to dance with Finn… Sadness fills the older blonde as she watches Rachel and Finn together. But her facial features change as she watches Rachel come back over to her and they dance next to each other for the rest of the song._

_Older Quinn smiles as she watches her younger self and Rachel sit back down in chairs next to each other__… a lightness floods through__ her head as the dream blurs to an end._

* * *

"_This emergency meeting is now in session," Rachel says aloud. After older Quinn opens her eyes, she focuses on her surroundings, noticing Rachel, Santana, Brittany, Tina and her younger self all spread out in a classroom._

"_Now I realize that we are a house divided, but I need the advice of my girls. The last time I called a meeting like this was during our Madonna lesson, and all of you were wildly unhelpful. But it's been two years now, and we've all grown up, so I'm optimistic. Finn and I were… almost intimate," Rachel rambles._

'Gross!'

_Older Quinn looks at her younger self who isn't looking at Rachel and is sporting a very straight face._

"_Almost? What happened?" Tina asks._

"_He ran out. I just… I wanted my performance of Maria to be as realistic as possible and when he found out that that's why I was doing it, he got really, really hurt," Rachel expresses._

_Older Quinn stares back over at her younger self who is now looking at Rachel._

"_Of course he was hurt," Tina adds._

"_Yeah, that's really bad, Rachel," Brittany voiced._

"_I know. I know. I feel terrible. And now I realize that I was just doing it for all the wrong reasons…" Rachel says. Younger Quinn cuts off the brunette, "Do you want my advice? Just wait."_

"_Just wait?" Rachel whispers out._

'Did I have any ulterior motives when I said that?'

"_Look what happened to me," older Quinn watches her younger self say with a shrug._

"_You could've used protection," Tina says._

"_I'm not just talking about getting pregnant, I'm-I'm talking about losing something that you can never get back. It changes you. It makes everything more complicated," younger Quinn voices._

"_I also think that you should wait. Speaking from experience, Finn is terrible in bed," Santana states._

"_Santana, that is not cool," Tina expresses._

"_Oh, what? If Rachel wants my sloppy seconds, she should at least know the truth. Look, it was like being smothered by a sweaty, out-of-breath sack of potatoes that someone soaked in body spray," Santana adds, seriously. Older Quinn chuckles._

"_I lost my virginity at cheerleading camp. He just climbed into my tent… alien invasion," Brittany says with a shrug._

'Wait, what?' _older Quinn says as she whips her head over to Brittany._

"_Okay, well, then I guess it's settled. Obviously, things are heating up between Finn and I. But I think we should wait," Rachel airs. Older Quinn turns and refocuses on Rachel._

"_Losing my virginity was a great experience for me… because I was with someone I love…" Tina starts to express, while older Quinn remains focused on Rachel as everything turns black._

* * *

_The older blonde notices that she's popped up in the hallway. She sees her younger self, Rachel, Brittany, Tina, Mercedes and Sugar storm up to Santana's locker, standing beside her and giving death stares at some jock whose name was never important enough to remember._

"_Move your busted creeper ass," Mercedes voices irritably._

"_Now," Tina says just as irritably as Mercedes._

"_Easy, girls. I'm just trying to make her normal," voices the jock._

"_She _is_ normal," Brittany states with her arms crossed, standing behind her girlfriend._

"_It's not a choice, idiot," older Quinn hears her younger self reply, the older blonde nodding along. "But even if it were, you'd be our last choice."_

"_Oh, I get it. You're all a bunch of lesbos," the jock says._

"_So what if we are?" Rachel butts in. Older Quinn whips her eyes to the brunette. "You don't stand a chance either way… Bye-bye… Walk away!"_

_Older Quinn watches the Glee girls swirl around and Santana starts singing 'I Kissed A Girl' in the middle of the hallway without a care in the world of who is watching. The older blonde watches on and sees that Rachel joins the Latina. The older blonde chooses to follow Rachel, and just as Rachel sings out, "lost my discretion," she sees her younger self step up to Rachel and places a protecting arm around her upper body, Rachel lifting her hand up to place it over the younger blonde's hand._

_Older Quinn shakes her head as she sees the exchange, _'How did I not see all these things before?'

_The older blonde follows the Glee girls as they make their way down the hallway to the choir room continuing to sing. A blurriness flashes through Quinn's eyesight and lightness comes over the blondes head, she tries to blink it away but things blur away before she can refocus on the dream._

* * *

"_I thought you weren't allowed here?" older Quinn hears herself say as she walks up to…_

'Rachel.'_ The older blonde smiles as she sees the brunette. _'These dreams aren't that bad anymore… as long as it's just us.'

"_I'm permitted on school grounds as long as I'm getting my work," Rachel states closing her locker and looking at the younger blonde. "Oh, I wanted to tell you I'm available for vocal coaching if you need any help. We need to bring our 'A' game if we have any chance of beating the Trouble Tones."_

'I'd love Rachel to help me with vocal training,'_ older Quinn smirks. _'Wait what?'

"_Oh, we're not gonna have any trouble with them. Not as soon as I have Shelby Corcoran fired," younger Quinn states as she moves to lean closer to Rachel "She's sleeping with Puck," the blonde whispers out. _

_Rachel's mouth opens, "Look, that's a really, really dangerous rumor to make up, okay? You're gonna ruin her entire reputation."_

"_That's the plan," younger Quinn butts in, "And it's not a lie, I heard it from Puck."_

"_First of all, Puck is 18, so what he and Shelby are doing, even though it's just wrong and so gross, it's not illegal. So all you're doing is you're just, you're getting her fired, which is gonna take away her income to provide food and clothes and put a roof over her child's tiny little blonde head," Rachel rambles out._

"_Sounds like an unfit mother, and I'll be waiting in the wings when they take Beth away from her."_

"_Beth loves her mom. Shelby is her real mom. Look, you've done a lot of really bad things, Quinn, but if you tell people about this Puck-and-Shelby thing, you'll be ruining this little girl's life, and then you'll have really hit rock bottom," Rachel desperately expresses, and then turns to leave._

'Why did I even come and tell Rachel this? She's the only one that's ever been completely honest with me… Maybe deep down I wanted someone to tell me that and the only person who could really make me listen is Rachel.' _Older Quinn shakes her head and rolls her eyes, _'I now know why she's the only one I listen too.'_ Then the dream starts to fade away._

* * *

_The older blonde spots herself storming in the deserted hallways of McKinley. "Where are you going?" Older Quinn turns her head to see Rachel power walking up the to the younger blonde. The older blonde turns and sees her younger self stop walking, "Aren't you supposed to be in the auditorium?"_

"_I saw you leave the auditorium. I know what you're gonna go do. You're gonna go tell Figgins about Shelby and Puck," Rachel states seriously._

_Younger Quinn turns around to face Rachel, "I'm an adult. I can do whatever I want."_

"_If you want to be a destructive force in the universe, that's your business, okay, but can you just please at least wait until after the Trouble Tones perform?" the brunette asks._

"_Why?"_

"_Because we don't want to wreck all the hard work that our friends in that group put into their performance."_

"_So we win."_

"_No, not like that. Look, just… if you're going to go through with this, you owe it to Shelby to tell her first. It's the adult thing to do," Rachel expresses as she turns to leave to head back into the auditorium but quickly turns back around to say one more thing. "I got a taste of what it's like to do the wrong thing. Okay? And it feels awful," Rachel says before turning and walking away._

_Both younger and older Quinn just stand there in the hallway. The older blonde doesn't even bother to look at herself; she already knows the pain that is written on her younger face because it's written on hers, too._

* * *

"_Well, my suspension is officially over," Rachel says as she steps out of the Principal's office. Quinn turns and sees her younger self sitting on one of the couches in the secretary's office. "It'll still be on my transcript, though. I'm just hoping that the admissions department at NYADA sees it as a sign of artistic, rebellious attitude."_

_Older Quinn smiles then looks at her younger self who, too, is smiling at the brunette, "Good luck with that."_

_The younger blonde stands up, smoothing out her dress as she straightens up. "Are you going to go tell Figgins about Shelby?" Rachel asks. "Cause I just… I still think that it's a really terrible idea."_

"_I came here to talk to you, actually. To tell you I'm not going to tell."_

"_Why?"_

'Because of you and…'

"_Because I love Beth, and I don't want to ruin her life. I wanted to thank you actually." _

"_For what?" Rachel wonders aloud._

"_For keeping me from doing something stupid. Something I would have regretted my entire life," younger Quinn honestly says._

_Rachel quickly looks down and then looks back up to the younger blonde, "We're kind of friends, huh?"_

_Older Quinn turns and watches herself beam and shrug, "Kind of," the younger blonde then sits back down on the couch, "What do you think about Yale?"_

_The older blonde looks over at Rachel smiling and watches the brunette sit on the couch next to her younger self, "Oh, no, I have my sights set on NYADA."_

"_No, for me. I'm not the singer that you and Kurt are, but Yale has an amazing drama program. And I really do like to perform," the younger blonde smiles out._

'Plus, it's very close to New York City.'

"_Yeah."_

"_Certainly would nail all the parts where the girl has to cry."_

_Rachel chuckles out, "No, I think it's a great idea. I mean, especially since you won't have me to compete with. You're a lot better than you know."_

_The older blonde's eyes start to fill with tears. Principal Figgin's office door reopens, breaking the two girls out of their conversation. Younger Quinn hops up from the couch, "Well, I'll see you at Glee Club."_

"_Where are you going?" Rachel asks hopping up from her couch, too._

"_I have a couple of people I need to talk to."_

"_Okay, well, I don't know if you need help with your Yale application…" Rachel says playing with her hands._

"_Not with the Yale application, but, um, there is something you could do for me," the younger blonde trails off._

_Older Quinn watches her younger self interact with Rachel. They had come a long way together… but they were still in a place Quinn didn't like. She wanted more. The older blonde sighs as another lightness comes over her and everything fades to black._

* * *

_Older Quinn looks around and sees that she's on stage in the auditorium. The older blonde hears Rachel singing 'We Are Young.' The older blonde follows the brunette's voice and finds her up on a riser on stage. She's skipping around as she sings and goes up to her Glee friends. _

_The older blonde smiles as she watches the brunette perform. Rachel goes over to younger Quinn who is sitting next to Sam and the older blonde watches Rachel place a light touch on her younger self's back as she sings, "My seat's been taken by some sunglasses, asking 'bout a scar and..."_

_Older Quinn continues to watch the performance with a smile on her face until the dream blurs away._

* * *

**Present Time:**

Judy and Rachel sat on either side of Quinn's bed. Silence fills the room as the two just watch the blonde look so lifeless, helplessness consuming them both, they don't know what else to do, but wait.

A nurse comes in with a bunch of flowers, bringing Judy and Rachel out of their silence, "A young man by the name of Sam came to visit…" the nurse trailed off.

Both Judy and Rachel nodded, the older blonde knowing who Sam was as she was introduced to him by Quinn during a church service one Sunday morning. "I told him he wasn't allowed to come into the ICU, but he dropped off these lovely flowers, so I thought to come bring them to Quinn."

Again Judy and Rachel just nodded and let the nurse place the flowers on the blonde's bedside table, both refocusing back on the girl laying on the bed. Just after the nurse left, Dr. Murphy lightly knocked on Quinn's glass door and slid it open to enter. Both Judy and Rachel shifted their eyes from Quinn to the head doctor on Quinn's case.

"Doctor Murphy," Judy expressed exhaustedly, the woman could calculate on one hand how many hours of sleep she's had in the last few days. She knew it was getting late into the evening but she had no idea what the exact time was.

The doctor smiled at the older blonde, "I just wanted to come in here before I head home to update you on Quinn's progress. As you know, we sent her for a fMRI of her brain and an MRI to take a look at her spinal cord after we stabilized her." Both ladies nodded. "The MRI shows the extent of injury to her spinal cord…" the doctor softly voiced. Rachel took a big breath in and moved her hand to grab the blondes on the bed. "She's experienced some heavy trauma to her spinal cord and we're not sure if she will be able to move her legs when she wakes up…" Both Judy and Rachel choked on tears that started to fall. "Quinn's legs have been unresponsive to any nerve tests we've tried."

"Are you saying my daughter is never going to walk again?" Judy cried out.

Doctor Murphy looked at the distraught women, "I've looked at the CT that was done just after we stabilized her after the crash and the MRI today, and it looks like there has been a slight improvement, however it doesn't look good enough… and since the nerve and muscle experiments have been negative, that's not a good indicator that Quinn will be able to move her legs when she wakes up. However, the group of doctors on your daughters case and myself don't want to say for certain that she will be a paraplegic… there's still hope."

Judy wiped her eyes as tears still continued to fall. Rachel was covering her mouth with the hand not embraced in Quinn's, trying to hush her cries. "What about the fMRI?" Judy barely managed to get out.

"After looking at the scans I would say it's positive progress for your daughter. Her brain seems to be functioning as well as it can while Quinn is in her comatose state…" Both Judy and Rachel breathed a sigh of relief, glad for that positive news. "However…" Doctor Murphy added, receiving worried looks for the two ladies. "Some areas in Quinn's occipital lobe that holds the visual cortex and the parietal lobe which is also in the cerebrum, and also the hippocampus that holds memory seem to be working excessively…"

"What does that mean?" Rachel worriedly wondered as she removed her hand from her mouth.

The doctor turned his eyesight from Judy to look at the brunette, "Well, it's not for certain, but I believe Quinn is dreaming about past memories."

"Is that normal?" Rachel asked.

"I haven't seen any cases like this before… but we can't scientifically say that she's dreaming about past memories, only Quinn can know for sure… but it doesn't seem to be having any dangerous affects on her… Quinn might just be trying to figure out a few things before she wakes up," Doctor Murphy stated.

"When will she wake up?" Judy expressed.

The doctor moved his eyes back over to Quinn's mother, "It's up to Quinn."


End file.
